


Broken Facade

by badpunsandstuff



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Depression, Drinking, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Sans Needs A Hug, idk how to use tags help, possible nsfw content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-11-29 20:13:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 27,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11448225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badpunsandstuff/pseuds/badpunsandstuff
Summary: It'd been a full year since the barrier was broken by Asriel and the monsters were freed to the surface. you'd expect everyone to be absolutely delighted, which was true- excluding one certain skeleton.After the reset after reset Sans had to deal with, he'd fallen into a deep sense of unhappiness. The worry of another reset occurring terrifying him greatly. Of course, he couldn't let anyone know that and covered up his sadness with a constant grin and always cracking jokes to keep everyone happy.He seemed to pull off the facade scarily well until one day, he breaks. In Grillby's newly established bar, the small drunken skeleton cries and rambles about all of his worries and fears. Grillby is left to attempt to comfort the wrecked skeleton, even though he has absolutely no idea how.





	1. Welp, work sucks

**Author's Note:**

> yo yo yo i'm new here and honestly i'm not that great of a writer but i hope you enjoy this mess of a fanfic anyways???

Sans gasped loudly, sitting up abruptly in his messy bed. Drops of sweat littered his face and body, and glowing cyan tears pricked away at the corner of his eye sockets. _It was just another nightmare, it's not real. Not real at all._ Sans assured himself, taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself down. Even though Frisk promised to never reset the timeline again, Sans was still terrified that they'd suddenly change their mind and bring everyone back to square one. His nightmares still occurred almost daily, resulting in him looking absolutely exhausted all the time. It was troubling and quite annoying, he used to love sleep so much and now he could barely ever get any without having a bad dream and waking up in tears. It sucked. A lot.

"SANS? ARE YOU AWAKE?" Papyrus' loud voice echoed from downstairs, probably attempting to make breakfast for the day. That was always appreciated, as Sans liked to do as little work as possible. After all this time, he was still a lazy ass skeleton.

"yea, i'll be downstairs in a few." Sans responded quickly, taking a few more moments to savor the comfort that was his bed. He wanted to go back to sleep so badly, but knew that he couldn't considering that he did have a job. The small skeleton dragged himself out of bed and got out of his pajamas, trading them clothing that would be barely acceptable for work attire. He worked as a scientist alongside Alphys and was mainly a physicist, however, on the side he secretly continued his research on anomalies and the time-space continuum. 

Sans dragged himself downstairs, not ready to put his facade of happiness on yet. It was extremely draining to have to smile and joke around all the time when all you wanted to do was cry and just be by yourself. He huffed, stopping for a moment before entering the kitchen, he needed a moment to compose himself before greeting his brother. It wasn't that he didn't want to talk to his brother considering that the loud skeleton always caused him to be in a better mood. He just needed a moment, already being able to tell that today was going to be a bad day. How lovely. "hey, bro." Sans greeted nonchalantly with a smile plastered onto his face once he was ready to walk into the kitchen.

"GOOD MORNING, BROTHER. YOU SLEPT IN LATE FOR A WORK DAY TODAY, YOU LAZYBONES." Papyrus chided lightly, although Sans knew that his younger brother wasn't actually mad at him. Sans couldn't help but sleep a lot, it just came so easily to him (well, that hasn't been the case lately considering his constant nightmares). If he hadn't had the issue of nightmares, Papyrus would've probably had to drag him out of bed himself.

"what can i say? i'm just so good at sleep that i could probably do it with my eyes closed." He joked, ignoring the overbearing thought in his mind that most of last night was spent tossing and turning relentlessly trying to actually get to sleep. Papyrus didn't even bother replying to his brother's bad pun, just rolling his eyes jokingly before turning back to the stove to continue making whatever he was cooking. "ah, c'mon, bro. that was a good one and you know it," Sans complained lightly, leaning against one of counters and crossing his arms.

 

"IT WAS NOT! IT WAS VERY BAD." Papyrus responded in his usual cheery, loud voice. Sans chuckled before turning on his heel to head back out into the living area.

 

"whatever ya say, paps. you're just jealous that you didn't think of it yourself," He said cheekily as he flopped down on the couch. He sighed comfortably, leaning into the worn cushions. The two brothers definitely didn't have the best furniture, but Sans personally thought that what they did have was pretty great. Especially the couch, it's perfect for naps. Being so exhausted from not getting any sleep the night before, Sans began to drift off into a light sleep. He was almost out before Papyrus' loud voice startled him awake.

"WAKE UP AND COME EAT, BREAKFAST IS READY." Papyrus informed, and all Sans could do was nod as he was still in a slight shock from being awoken so quickly. He practically dragged himself off the couch, stretching as if he had just gotten up from a long night's sleep. Heading over to their small table, Sans noticed the two plates of spaghetti already placed in front of their seats. Papyrus had gotten tremendously better at cooking compared to when Undyne first started giving him cooking lessons back in the Underground. He was actually going to cooking school currently, since he could no longer join the Royal Guard anymore (as it was disbanded a year ago) he took up cooking as an actual job possibility. It was nice not having to pretend that Papyrus' meals tasted good just for his younger brother's sake and actually enjoying them.

"ya know, paps. i wouldn't exactly call spaghetti breakfast." Sans joked around, although he really didn't care what they ate for each meal. Food was food, and Sans would probably enjoy it as long as it tasted good. He could hear Papyrus' fake offended gasp coming from the kitchen before he emerged, carrying forks and napkins. 

"AND? WHAT IS YOUR POINT?" Papyrus responded, sitting down in his respective seat, Sans across from him with a amused grin glued onto his face. He handed Sans a napkin and a fork, who took the two objects quickly. 

"well, damn. you got me there." Sans chuckled, actually not feeling to bad in that moment. He normally felt pretty emotionally stable when his brother was around. He had this way of cheering Sans up without even knowing that the smaller skeleton was suffering. Papyrus smiled triumphantly once Sans admitted to him being right and then began to eat. Sans did as well, enjoying that his brother's food actually tasted edible now. Back then, it all tasted like someone tried to make food, burnt it, and then let their dog take a crap on it. Okay, maybe that was a slight exaggeration. The point was that it tasted bad, period. The two ate their breakfast in content silence, and every now and then a small conversation ensued. Sans lost track of time and the next time he glanced at his phone that he didn't even remember bringing downstairs with him, it was already time to go to work. "crap, i've gotta go. see ya later, bro!" Sans jumped up from his seat and began to head to the door. As much as he'd love to miss work and laze around all day, he knew Alphys would not be happy about that unless he was sick.

"SANS! WHAT ABOUT YOUR PLATE?" Papyrus complained, his eyes staring intently at the dirty plate Sans had left sitting on the table. How typical of him. He couldn't expect much more from his brother, though. He had always been messy, and Papyrus had a feeling that wouldn't change for a long time, if not ever.

"i'll clean it up later!" Sans promised, but both of them knew very well that he wasn't going to be cleaning it up anytime soon. Even if he planned on it, he'd probably forget about it ever being left on the table sooner or later. Sans then waved one last goodbye for the day and headed outside, closing the door behind him. Glancing at the clock on his phone, he knew he wouldn't make it by walking. Thank the stars that he could just teleport there instead. That made his life a lot easier and saved unnecessary explanations to his boss as of why he was late. Within moments, he was outside the lab he worked at. Taking a moment to steady himself, as teleportation always seemed to make him the slightest bit dizzy.

Walking inside the large building, the stark white lobby almost hurt his eyes. Everything was so clean and crisp, with splashes of color thanks to framed pictures/paintings on the wall and a couple of other small objects. There really wasn't any need for the lobby other than a place for employees to sign in, since visitors weren't exactly expected at a place like this. Sans headed up to the front desk and showed his work I.D to the lady working behind it. She simply looked at it for a few moments before nodding and logging him into the system. The woman wasn't exactly one for words, and the only reason that Sans knew her name was because of the name tag on her coat.

Sans walked into the next room, and his work day began. It went by excruciatingly slow for some reason, possibly because there wasn't much to be done. Well, that was a lie. There was a lot of filling out paperwork, and Sans definitely did not like filling out papers. It was a lot of work, and quite overwhelming considering his lazy tendencies. He couldn't help but look at the small clock on the computer next to him often, wanting his shift to be over already.

As the time for his day to be over came closer, the slower it seemed to go. He was still filling out papers, taking well deserved 'breaks' often which was really just him using his phone for thirty minutes or so. Finally, after what felt like forever, the day was over. The moment he saw the time was at 4:00 PM, he shoved all of the papers into a messy pile and stood up from the office chair he'd been stuck in for most of the day. He made sure he had everything and walked back out into the lobby to sign out. He was practically itching to get home, and the thought of taking a nap on the couch was suddenly very appealing to him. Sans once again headed up to the front desk like he had that same morning, and showed the worker (who's name was Anna, according to the name tag) his I.D. It wasn't like he really needed to, since he was already in the system for the day so Anna could easily find him and sign him out. It was most likely out of habit, as he had to do it for the first couple of months when nobody really knew him. He waved bye before walking out of the large building and sighing loudly. It was Friday, he had just realized which meant he had the entire weekend to himself. Well, maybe not to himself but he did have lots of extra time to sit around and worry about literally everything.

Sans decided that it wasn't worth walking home, as that took way too much effort on his part. He teleported home, reappearing inside the living room that he had slowly grown accustomed too. Papyrus would still be at work (well, it was more like a school) for about two more hours, he didn't have to go in until about an hour after Sans' shift started which of course the short skeleton was jealous of. Before doing anything, he walked upstairs and into his bedroom to change. The clothing he was wearing just wasn't really his thing. He stripped of everything he would only wear to work and put on a worn out white t-shirt and a pair of loose black sweatpants. To top it off, he put on the blue hoodie that he was almost never seen without it on unless he was at work. He thought for a moment before flopping down onto his bed instead of the couch like he had thought of doing while signing out at the lab. It was just too far, and teleporting downstairs just seemed like overkill.

It wasn't very long until he felt his eyes growing heavy, and he fell into a light sleep, sprawled out on his mattress comfortably.


	2. Drunken Confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans decides to take a trip to Grillby's after a nap and ends up spilling his worst fear to the fire elemental.

Sans groaned, turning on his side and blindly reaching for his phone. It was somewhere on the mattress, he just knew it. However, he was still too tired to open his eyes and actually search for it. His hand finally brushed over a cold metal object, and he automatically knew that it was what he had been looking for. Grabbing it tightly, he brought it up to his face and unlocked it while peeking at it with one eye open. fuck, that’s really bright. He thought to himself, squinting to check the time. It was 6:34 PM. He had been napping for about an hour and a half, which wasn’t really too bad. Well, not bad for him, at least.  


Sans rolled out of bed, almost taking the blanket with him before pushing it off of him just in time. He placed his feet on the floor and stood up very slowly, still half asleep. He decided that he might as well go to Grillby’s, considering that he did have quite a bit of time to spend. Grillby had just recently been able to open up a bar, as there were a lot of stuff he had to get done before he could get a restaurant up and running. Thankfully, it was pretty close to Sans and Papyrus’ house. That made it easier for Sans to get there. He grabbed his phone off the bed and shoved it in his pocket before walking out of his room, audibly complaining at the bright light he was greeted with. Shielding his eyes for a few moments, he walked down the stairs and greeted Papyrus who was seeming to get ready to cook dinner.

“hey paps, i’m gonna be heading to grillby’s. is that cool with you?” Sans questioned lightly, glancing over at his younger brother.

“WELL, FINALLY YOU GOT UP. THAT’S ALRIGHT, JUST TRY NOT TO BE OUT TO LATE.” Papyrus responded with a smile. Sans didn’t know how he did it. He was always so happy and optimistic, something that Sans himself wish he could genuinely do. Even pretending, he wasn’t even close to the caliber that Papyrus was, but he assumed people just thought that was how he was. A lot mellower than his brother was, which was something he’d been told multiple times. After about a minute, he realized he had been zoning out.

“oh, sorry about that, bro. i won’t be too late, and if i am you can just call me.” he responded, smiling and waving before heading towards the door.

“OKAY. GOODBYE, BROTHER.” Papyrus beamed, waving back at Sans and then turned back to the kitchen. Sans strolled outside and closed the door behind him, shoving his small hands into the pockets of his hoodie. Letting out a small huff, he began to walk towards his destination. Humans tended to not like it when he showed up out of nowhere, so he decided it’d be best if he just walked.  


He looked around, taking in his surroundings. It was already starting to get dark out, as it was beginning to near winter. Most of the leaves had already fallen off of the trees and were littering the sidewalk and dark asphalt haphazardly. It looked quite nice, Sans noted to himself. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that it was much nicer on the surface than back in the underground, landscape wise.

At the thought of the underground, he shuddered, shaking his head in disapproval. Every time he thought of his old home, he was reminded the possibility of another reset. No matter how many times Frisk promised that there would be no more, he still couldn’t shake the feeling that one day he’d wake up and be back at his old sentry post. Having to do everything over again, it terrified him just thinking about it.  


Being lost in his thought once more, he didn’t really realize when he made it to the outside of the bar. A soft smile graced his tired features and he headed up to the front door. Pushing it open, he relaxed at the familiar scent. Even though it was in a completely different place, it still smelt the same. It was a hard one to explain, but for some reason it was comforting to Sans. The inside of the bar still looked pretty similar to its underground counterpart, with just a couple things switched around. With his hands still in his pockets, he strolled up to the bar itself and got up onto one of the high stools with a little bit of struggling. “hey, grillbz.” He greeted shortly, knowing that Grillby wasn’t really the type of person to talk much.

“Hello, Sans. The usual?” Grillby asked, sending a small smile in Sans’ direction.

Sans thought about it for a moment, and almost opened his mouth up to say yes before abruptly changing his mind. “actually, could ya get me a shot of the best you got?” By best, Sans meant whatever alcohol he had that would get him fried the quickest. He figured it wouldn’t do that much harm to get a little drunk night. He didn’t have work for two days anyways, so he’d be able to sleep in for however long he wanted.  


Grillby nodded before turning his back to Sans to get him a shot ready, turning back around moments later to hand it to the small skeleton. “thanks, grillby.” Sans thanked him, taking the glass from him and sniffing it once to see how strong it would taste. His face scrunched up instinctively at how strong the smell was, but then shrugged and downed the small amount of liquid. He coughed once, although he didn’t have an actual throat the sensation of a strong burn was definitely there.

Around thirty minutes later, Sans was absolutely wasted. A soft shade of blue was scattered across his cheekbones, and his eye lights were hazy and tired. “ya know, grillbz, y-you’d think that after being freed to the surface that i’d be happy.” His words slurred together badly, becoming slightly hard to understand.

This caught Grillby’s attention. He turned around, stopping whatever he was doing to talk to Sans. “What do you mean?” He asked, leaning against the bar counter.

“it’s not long until it g-gets reset again, and we a-all get sent back to square one. sounds lovely, d-doesn’t it?” Sans hiccupped a few times while speaking, making it a little more difficult for him to put together fluent sentences.

“Reset? Sans, I don’t understand what you’re talking about.” Grillby was immensely confused. He had never seen this side of Sans, he only saw the one that was always laughing and cracking bad puns. He looked wrecked at the moment, the bags under his eyes much more noticeable and his smile faltering every few seconds.

“frisk, the human. they could reset this entire world at any moment and w-we’d be sent back underground, b-back to the day that they fell down mt. ebbott.” Sans lamented, his eye lights lazily flickering up to Grillby’s face. “i’m so fucking tired of it, grillby. i’m s-so god damn tired of having everything reset over and over again.”

“You mean, this wouldn’t be the first time that the world’s been reset?” Grillby asked, attempting to make sense of the whole situation. It seemed that Sans had a lot more to him than meets the eye. He seemed to be a lot sadder than he let on. After all, drunk words are just sober thoughts.

“no, n-not even close. it’s happened s-so much that i can’t even remember h-how many times now. it seems like i’m the only one who’s r-remembered them, and i h-hate it so much.” He continued to ramble on. Cyan blue tears began to prick at the corners of his eye sockets and threatened to fall. Sans couldn’t help it, all of the pent up emotion was going to have to come out some way or another whether he wanted it to happen or not.

Grillby was at a loss for words, he had no idea how to comfort someone. He’s never had to, and especially not about this topic. It was all brand new to him. “How are you sure that it’s going to happen again?” He wondered, trying to ask questions that might Sans back down from his panicked state.

“because, it always h-happens again. frisk said t-that it wouldn’t, but how c-can i know that for sure?” He mumbled, the tears finally welling over and starting to streak his face in a steady flow. It didn’t seem like they were going to stop anytime soon. Grillby felt really bad for him. He cared about Sans, a lot more than he’d probably admit out loud and hated to see him this way.

The fire elemental frowned, trying to throw together an acceptable response. “Well, it’s been a year since monsters roamed free. Don’t you think that Frisk would’ve reset long ago if they felt like it?” Grillby normally didn’t talk much during his work shift, but Sans was an exception. He looked so miserable now, the tears refusing to stop flowing no matter how many times Sans wiped them away with the sleeve of his hoodie. It seemed like he had been holding this in for quite a while.

“i-i mean… i guess t-that’s true. they could get bored though, and want to try something n-new.” He whined in response. His smile had completely disappeared by now, and Grillby realized that this was the first time he had ever seen Sans without a smile on his face. He hated it. The small skeleton looked so defeated, the weight of everything on his shoulders finally getting to him.

“I don’t think they will. From what I’ve heard, they’re quite happy with Toriel. It would be quite out of the blue for them to reset after finally getting to have a family,” Grillby reasoned with him, hoping to the stars that he could console Sans properly. He tapped his fingers on the counter nervously, he was probably doing an awful job at calming him down.

To his surprise, he seemed to be doing a better job than he originally thought, as Sans slowly began to calm down and his panicked gasps for air slowed to a stop. It had been a full blown panic attack for a while, Grillby noted. After about ten minutes, Sans wiped the last bits of tears off of his face. “thanks grillbz, i r-really needed that.” The stuttering didn’t stop, which wasn’t odd considering that the skeleton was still juiced to shit. “hey, um, c-could i ask you a favor?” He then added on before Grillby had the chance to speak.

“It was no problem. And sure, what is it?” Grillby responded, curiosity getting the best of him as he waited for Sans’ reply.

It took a couple of moments for him to actually gather together the right words to reply. Now that the panic-stricken state of mind had left him, he realized how muddled up his non-existent brain actually felt from the alcohol. “would- would it be alright if i stayed t-the night at your place? i really don’t want paps to s-see me like this.”

Grillby had to think about it, he wasn’t sure about it in all honesty. Sure, he was friends with Sans. However, they weren’t extremely close. He figured that he couldn’t do much harm, he’d probably pass out the moment he laid on something comfortable. Even if he wasn’t drunk, he knew that Sans wasn’t the type of monster to go around and break people’s belongings. “Sure, you can. I’ll let you sleep on the couch, if that’s okay,” he stated kindly.  


Sans let out a relieved sigh. He was worried that Grillby was going to say no and he’d have to go home and face Papyrus. He was in no shape to explain why he was drunk and why he was so upset. “thank you,” was all he said before pulling out his phone to text Papyrus.

'hey, bro. i’m gonna be staying at grillby’s tonight, i’ll see you tomorrow morning.' Sans set down his phone and then turned his attention back up to Grillby.

“It’s only 9 PM, so I’ll probably keep the place open for another thirty minutes or so. I’ll be closing early, though, just so you can get to sleep. You’ll be okay for a little while longer, right?” Grillby rambled a bit, not sure if Sans had the ability to stay conscious for that long. Being that drunk, he was bound to pass out at some point.

Sans nodded, a soft smile appearing back onto his features. It didn’t last long, but Grillby was glad to see that he smiled again. “yeah, i s-should be okay.” He informed.

Grillby smiled and then began to get back to work, glancing back to check up on Sans every so often. He didn’t look as sad as he looked tired now, his eyes threatening to fall shut every now and then.

Maybe he’d have to close up even earlier than he thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> andddd there ya have it, chapter two! i apologize if there are grammar mistakes because i don't have anyone to proof read my writing. it's pretty messy and stuff, but i hope you still enjoy it :)


	3. Hangovers and Headaches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans wakes up in Grillby's living room, not remembering what happened the night before until he noticed the pounding headache in his skull.

By the time Grillby closed up the bar completely, Sans had already passed out. His arms were folded on the bar counter and his head rested on it, cheeks still hinted blue from the alcohol in his system. He looked quite peaceful, at least compared to his state of mind about fourty-five minutes ago he did. “Hey, Sans. You have to wake up.” Grillby whispered loudly, using his hands to shake the small skeleton’s shoulders lightly. He didn’t budge. He attempted this for a couple more minutes before giving up. The fire elemental picked up Sans like one would with a child, one arm supporting his legs and the other wrapped around his back.

Before now, Grillby never realized how small the skeleton was. He always knew that he was short, but he seemed to be as light as a feather in his arms. That could very well be because he was literally all bones, but that wasn’t the point. He also couldn’t help but notice that Sans unconsciously hid his face into Grillby’s neck the moment he was picked up. 

It was cute. Wait, what?

He shook away his thoughts and carried Sans up the stairs and into his apartment that he was lucky to have so ridiculously close to his bar. Using the arm that wasn’t supporting Sans’ legs, he fished his keys out of his back pocket and opened up the door to his small place. Pulling the key out, Grillby closed the door with his foot behind him and then turned around to lock it properly. He set Sans down carefully on the couch, pulling off his slippers that he wore almost every day and set them down next to the couch itself. Grillby grabbed the blanket draped over the backside of the couch and placed it on the small skeleton carefully, not wanting to wake him up. Although, he was sure that if Sans was going to wake up it would’ve happened a couple minutes ago when Grillby was attempting to get him to do just that.

Grillby sighed tiredly. He hadn’t realized how much the day took out of him until just now, and he was pretty excited to finally lay down to rest. He glanced at Sans one final time before heading back into his own room to get ready for bed.  


The next morning, Sans groaned loudly once he opened his eyes. He had completely forgotten about the night before, so the major headache he was greeted with was a little jarring at first. _where am i?_ He wondered to himself, squinting while he looked around. Finally, the memories from the night before came flooding back. He had gotten wasted and rambled to Grillby about a shit ton of stuff that was constantly on his mind. Afterwards, he asked Grillby if he could stay the night as his place. Considering his unknown surroundings, it seemed that the elemental monster accepted his favor. He slowly came to a sitting position, his hand grabbing onto his skull as it throbbed in pain. _how much did i drink last night? It must’ve been a lot, it took quite a bit of alcohol for his head to hurt this badly._ He was also pretty shocked that he didn’t seem to recall a nightmare, but that might’ve just been because he was drunk the night before and slept like the dead.

Sans felt his pockets for his phone afterwards and pulled it out after finding it. Upon unlocking it, he noticed that he had received a text from Papyrus the night before.

‘OKAY, BROTHER. I SHALL SEE YOU TOMORROW.’

Sans couldn’t help but chuckle. Not only was his younger brother very loud when he talked, but he even typed in capital letters. Unlike Sans, who always typed in lower case.

Since his eyes were already angled towards the ground, he noticed his slippers were set neatly side by side at the foot of the couch. _grillby must’ve done that._ Sans concluded with a soft smile, scooting over to slip them on his sock-clad feet.

He wasn’t entirely sure if teleporting while hung over was a good idea, but he decided to do it anyways. Sans was very good at making bad decisions, in his opinion. He popped out of the small living room and reappeared in front of the door to his house, just in case Papyrus was home. A hand flew up to his mouth, nausea overcoming him like he was just hit by a truck. It took him a lot not to throw up all over the front door, but somehow he was able to hold it back. He groaned quietly out of pure discomfort before unlocking the door and pushing it open sluggishly. 

“AH, SANS! YOU ARE FINALLY HOME.” Papyrus’ loud voice boomed from where he was sitting on the couch. Papyrus? Relaxing? Well, isn’t that a surprise. The volume of his voice brought another sharp pang to his skull, however, he withheld pressing a palm to his forehead. He didn’t want his younger brother to know what was wrong, especially since he didn’t approve of Sans drinking becoming more and more of a problem.

“yeah, bro, i sure am. sorry that it took so long.” He apologized quietly, boney fingers scratching at the back of his skull nervously. Sans turned to head to the kitchen in search of painkillers and some water, but not before he was stopped by his brother.

“IT IS QUITE ALRIGHT. I HAD TO READ MY BEDTIME STORY TO MYSELF, THOUGH. THAT WAS A HASSLE.” Papyrus scolded lightly, although the tone in his voice held a teasing note to it. It was obvious that he wasn’t actually upset at Sans, it took a lot more than not being there to read him a bedtime story to actually upset the taller skeleton.

Sans chuckled and threw his hands up in defeat. “crap, you’re right. i’m such a numbskull that i completely forgot i was supposed to do that.” He smirked at his own pun. No matter how shitty he felt, Sans would always find a way to make a pun.

Papyrus rolled his eyes automatically upon hearing his older brother’s terrible pun. “SANS. THAT WAS AWFUL!” He complained, crossing his arms over his chest but making no move to get up from the couch. He must’ve been really engrossed in the show that he was watching, but that wasn’t entirely a bad thing. Sans knew that his breath still probably reeked of alcohol, and being up close to the skeleton would make it obvious that he wasn’t feeling too hot.  


“actually, it was pretty bonetastic.” Sans responded, throwing gun hands and winking jokingly in his brother’s direction before turning around to actually walk into the kitchen. He could hear Papyrus’ exasperated groan coming from the living room, causing another amused chuckle to fall from Sans’ mouth. He still felt like he was dying, but his brother had once again managed to turn his pouty mood around. He shuffled around the kitchen, opening and closing cupboards in an attempt to find what he was looking for.

Finally, after what seemed like ten minutes of searching (in reality it was more like two), he found the pain killers. Opening the bottle up, he poured out two into his hand and then closed the cap. Standing up on his toes, he shoved the small bottle back to where it belonged. With the two pills still in his hands, Sans opened up the fridge and pulled out a full water bottle. It was their last one, he was very lucky.

He struggled to open up the bottle slightly, grinning triumphantly once the cap finally popped off. Sans tossed the painkillers into his mouth lazily, taking a large gulp of water afterwards to get it down his non-existent throat. He twisted the cap back on and strolled out of the kitchen nonchalantly with his room in mind as the destination. “i’ll be in my room, paps. i’m probably gonna be taking a nap though, so you’ll actually have to come into my room to wake me up.” He informed with a big grin, waving at Papyrus as he crossed the living room.

“WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED?” Papyrus shook his head while he spoke, but the joking look visible on his face let Sans know that he was just messing with him. Sans shrugged, stopping his short journey at the foot of the stairs so that he could reply to his younger brother.

“’cause, i take at least one nap every single day. its like my thing.” Sans shrugged and then chuckled quietly, leaning against the wall to keep his balance. He was quite dizzy, now that he thought about it. Even though he’d been up for less than an hour, he knew that an nap was necessary to help this hangover pass as peacefully as it could.  


“OH, YEAH. YOU’RE RIGHT.” Papyrus responded, the teasing look on his face becoming more obvious. “I FORGET THAT NOT EVERYONE CAN HAVE AS MUCH ENERGY AS I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAS.”

“you got me there, paps.”

“I SURE DID!”

Sans shook his head jokingly before turning around and waving one final time. He walked up the stairs, albeit a little shakily and prayed to the stars that Papyrus didn’t notice the way his legs shook every time he took a step. By the comfortable silence that encased the room after Papyrus’ last statement, it seemed like he hadn’t. Thank the stars for that one. Once he reached the door to his room, he didn’t hesitate to open it up and get inside quickly. He let out a breath of relief that he hadn’t even realized that he was holding, but it wasn’t surprising since skeletons didn’t exactly need to breathe.

He shuffled over to his bed tiredly and practically fell onto it face first, his head hitting his uncovered pillow. Sans rolled over slowly until he was facing the ceiling, feeling his pockets for his phone and pulling it out very slowly. His eyes squinted automatically when he turned it on, the bright light not doing much to help his headache which so far hadn’t fading away in the slightest. It was only 11:47 in the morning, meaning he had basically all day left to lie around and do nothing except complain to himself about how shitty he felt.

Sans opened up his texting app and opened up a new thread, typing Grillby’s name into the contact searcher. He didn’t really remember why he had Grillby’s number, one day it was just kind’ve there. He was probably drunk when he got it, in all honesty.

sans:

'hey, thanks for lettin me crash at your place last night. i owe you one.'

Sans read over the text once, checking for typos and then sent it. A couple minutes later he was surprised to get a reply. He didn’t expect Grillby to respond so quickly while he was working, but hey, maybe he didn’t have many customers at that moment.

grillbz:

'Like you owe me that tab you still haven’t paid?'

The small skeleton panicked slightly. He didn’t have the money to pay his tab back, at least not now he didn’t

sans:

'heh, yeahhh. sorry about that.'

He tried to make the response as nonchalant as possible, thanking the stars that it was easy to text without showing what emotion you were actually feeling. His worries were diminished moments later, though.

grillbz:

'I’m just kidding with you. It was no problem.'  


A large sigh escaped Sans’ mouth, the worry bubbling in his non-existent gut dissipating very quickly afterwards. Grillby had just been joking with him. It was quite strange, as he’d never heard a joke to come out of the fire elemental’s mouth before now. Well, technically he still hadn’t. He still had joked with Sans, which wasn’t something that the skeleton was used to. He typed out a quick reply, making sure that it sounded teasing enough before letting his phone drop to the mattress. Sans turned on his side, seeing his phone light up once more. It must’ve been from Grillby, and if Sans wasn’t suddenly feeling so tired he would’ve picked up his phone to respond.

Alas, he couldn’t fight the overpowering feeling of exhaustion and his eyes fell shut. Sans was out like a lightbulb within minutes, showing how tired he really had been lately. 

“SANS! YOU HAVE BEEN ASLEEP FOR FIVE HOURS NOW. GET UP, YOU LAZYBONES!” Papyrus shook Sans awake, who groaned and complained under his breath. He really didn’t want to get up. He was so comfortable in his bed, curled up with his hoodie on.

“mmm, i don’t wanna.” Sans whined, turning to bury his face in the pillow. At this, the younger skeleton had enough. He picked up Sans bridal style, and to his surprise, the smaller of the two barely budged. He carried him downstairs and let him flop down on the couch, which did elicit a reaction from the tired skeleton. “woah, woah. i was asleep.” 

“YES, I KNOW THAT. AND I HAVE MADE DINNER.” Papyrus responded, which in turn made Sans peek at the other with one eye.  


“you did?” He whispered, still pretty adamant on lying down.

“YES. IT IS 5:52, BROTHER. YOU NEED TO GET UP AND EAT.” Sans was pretty shocked by his words. He had slept for more than five hours, almost six. He must’ve really needed that rest.

“fine, fine. i’m getting up.” The small skeleton grumbled, but made no move to sit up, let alone stand up.

“THAT DOESN’T LOOK LIKE GETTING UP, SANS.”

“okay, okay, i swear i’m actually getting up now.” Sans promised. Although it did take him a minute, his opened his eyes and pushed himself up into a sitting position. He was still leaning heavily back onto the couch, showing that he was still barely awake. It was better than nothing, though. Yawning, he turned his attention up to Papyrus. “so, what’re we having?”

“YOU’LL SEE WHEN YOU WALK TO THE DINING TABLE.”

“walk? there? you’re really expecting a lot out of me, bro. that’s a lot of unnecessary exercise.”

“WELL, I ALREADY CARRIED YOU DOWN HERE. SO I WILL NOT BE CARRYING YOU TO THE DINING TABLE.” Papyrus said firmly, though a small smile was still visible. It took a lot for Papyrus to get mad at Sans even with all of his lazy tendencies, like mentioned before.

“fine, i’m walking there.” Like when he sat up, it took Sans a few moments took actually stand. Once he did, he realized that he hadn’t ever taken off his slippers when he took the nap. Oh well, that didn’t really matter. He shuffled over to the dining table, glancing back at Papyrus with a tired grin.

Thank the stars he had such a cool brother to take care of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is kind've long and it's completely a filler chapter, i am sorry ahh. but i hope you like it, also there are probably grammar mistakes, oops!


	4. He didn't mean it, right?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans visits Grillby's bar and out of pure exhaustion, accidentally starts throwing some pick up lines to the fire elemental.

It was a Sunday afternoon, two days after the incident with Grillby where Sans spilled everything that he wouldn’t dare tell anyone while sober. Papyrus was over at Undyne’s and Alphys’ place for the day doing who knows what. Most likely they were making food, and he wouldn’t doubt that Undyne was practically wrecking her kitchen. He’d never seen anyone be as violent making food until he met the fish monster. Sans, on the other hand, was lazing comfortably on the couch. He had remote in one hand that was absentmindedly flicking through the channels, and a bottle of ketchup in the other. There was nothing interesting on to watch, there normally never was on a Sunday.

Sans set down the remote and picked up his phone, checking to see if he had any notifications. Specifically, he was checking to see if he had received a reply from Grillby. For some reason, they had started texting regularly like they were best buds. It wasn’t a bad thing, it was just a bit strange considering that about three days they only spoke while Sans was in Grillby’s bar. He hadn’t responded yet, which made sense. He did have a bar to run, after all. Letting his phone drop to his lap, he turned his attention back to whatever was on the TV. It was some sort of golfing tournament, which Sans was not interested in at all. He didn’t really understand sports, and probably never would.

He reached for the remote and began to switch through channels again at a sluggish pace. The small skeleton was extremely bored due to the lack of interesting content on TV and wanted something to do. Of course, he only wanted to do things that involved him being able to either sit or lay down. Being lazy was what he did best, in his own opinion. Huffing, Sans gave up trying to find something and settled on some extremely over dramatic show. The acting was terrible, and the events happening in the current episode were very predictable. However, he ended up enjoying watching it. Not because of the bad plot, but because he silently made fun of all of the flaws the show had. 

Once it was over, he was once again left with nothing to do. Sans picked up his phone and checked the time. 3:24 PM. Considering how bored he knew he’d be if he stayed at home, he made the decision to walk over to Grillby’s. He’d probably enjoy himself more there, plus he would get to sit and basically do nothing. That was right up his ally.

Standing up from the worn couch, the small skeleton zipped up his blue hoodie and then shoved his phone unceremoniously into his pocket. It was getting colder out every day, and Sans did not want to be prey to it. He got sick easily, and being cold would not aid him in that whole trying to avoid it thing. Sans strolled up to the front door, forgetting to turn off the TV. He knew that if he didn’t get home before Papyrus did that his younger brother would not be happy with him for leaving it on. Using his gravity magic, he brought the remote over to him. One of the many perks to having magic like that meant that he had plenty of more opportunities to be lazy. He faced in the direction of the TV and turned it off before tossing the remote back on the couch, quite proud of himself when it didn’t bounce back onto the floor.

Turning back to the front door, Sans took the house key out of his shorts pocket and unlocked it. He stepped outside and closed it behind him, locking it back up moments later. Dropping the key back into his pocket, he began to walk in the direction of the bar. He was more so shuffling his feet than actually picking them up off the ground, he was too tired to do anything more than what he already was. Even though he took plenty of naps, the fact that he was almost never getting a good night’s sleep was really taking a toll on him. He wished that the nightmares would stop, but they never did. Sometimes, it seemed as if they were getting more vivid.

He stayed deep in his thoughts for the remainder of the time that he was walking, only pulling himself out of his mind when he saw that he had arrived at his destination. Pushing the door open, he smiled and waved at some of the monsters that still were regulars at Grillby’s bar, like the skeleton himself. Once he reached the bar counter itself, he pushed himself up onto one of the bar stools. Sans always struggled mildly trying to sit on the tall chairs, his short stature never seeming to aid him. “heya, grillbz.” He greeted, waving at the fire elemental.

“Hello, Sans. How are you?” Grillby asked, engaging the two in small talk. He was currently using a soft rag on a glass, most likely drying it off.

“i’m hangin’ in there, tibia honest. you?” Sans responded, casually dropping in a pun. Even if he wasn’t in the best of moods, he was always able to crack a joke with the snap of his fingers. He placed his elbows on the counter, leaning over it slightly while he waited for the other’s response.

“I’m tired, it’s been busy today.” Grillby stated, and Sans noticed that he did seem to be moving and talking a bit more sluggishly than usual. Well, he assumed that was a pretty common thing when you owned and ran a bar on your own.

“that’s pretty strange, isn’t sunday normally your least busy day?” Sans inquired curiously. Being someone that visited the bar almost on a daily, he began to notice the days that were the busiest and the ones that weren’t over time.

“A lot of the time it is, I don’t know why today is so different.” Grillby shrugged while he spoke, moving to set down the cup that he had finally finished drying off. Seemed as if he worked slower while distracted. “Do you want anything?”

“just the usual,” Sans replied with a grin. Even though he was drinking ketchup about fifteen minutes ago, it never hurt to have more. Well, in his opinion it didn’t. Maybe it was different for other people who didn’t normally just drink ketchup out of the bottle. 

Grillby nodded and walked into the back room for a minute, coming out moments later with a bottle of ketchup in one hand. He handed it to Sans who thanked him and took it from his hands afterwards. The skeleton removed the cap and took a drink out of it, setting it down on the counter afterwards.  


About an hour passed of Sans nurturing the bottle of ketchup and making small talk with Grillby before he began to feel the effects of being sleep deprived hit him. Although it was still quite early to be tired, Sans got tired very quick and very often if he didn’t get his fair share of naps. He had only taken a thirty minute long one somewhere around 11:00 AM, which explained his sleepiness hitting him now. He finished the bottle of ketchup and handed it to Grillby, who in turn threw it in the nearby trash can.

Slowly but surely, Sans’ thoughts became clouded with exhaustion and stopped making casual conversation. Instead of that, some pretty suggestive lines began to spill from his mouth.

“hey grillbz, is it hot in here? or is that just you?”

“i’d offer you a cigarette, but you’re already smokin’ hot.”

“i’m a little cold, why don’t you come here and warm me up?”

Grillby was thoroughly confused. Why the hell was Sans flirting with him? Well, considering that it was Sans, it could be just some elaborate joke. He didn’t really seem to be joking, although that could be hard to tell sometimes. “Sans?” 

“yeah?” Sans asked with a tired grin, not even realizing that what he was doing could cause problems to arise in their friendship.

“Is there a reason that you’re flirting with me?” Grillby asked. He didn’t sound mad or upset in any way, just curious.

It seemed that Sans shot wide awake at his question, a bright blue blush practically exploding onto his cheeks. Being basically half asleep, he wasn’t really paying attention to what he was saying, everything just coming out like word vomit. If Grillby hadn’t pointed it out he probably would’ve kept going until he decided to leave or when he passed out from exhaustion. “o-oh my stars, i am really sorry. you know, i-i should probably leave right now. paps is probably home now and i should keep him company, ya know? just, uh, just put the ketchup on my tab.” He rambled nervously, speaking so quickly that his words jumbled together and were almost hard to understand. “bye!” Sans exclaimed and hopped out of his seat, shuffling quickly out of the bar and leaving a very confused fire elemental behind.

That had been the most embarrassed Grillby had ever seen Sans, come to think of it, he’d never seen Sans flustered before. If he was joking around, wouldn’t he have just cracked another joke in response to his question? Unless he actually- no. That couldn’t be right.

Sans didn’t care about the humans freaking out him teleporting at the moment, he just wanted to get home. Once he got outside, he immediately popped out of sight and into his own room. _holy shit, why was i flirting? on top of that, why was i so flustered when he pointed it out?_ Grillby had just asked him a question, there was no reason for Sans to freak out the way he did. He didn’t mean anything by it, right? He was just tired and delirious, right?

The small monster had no way of knowing for sure, his thoughts were so jumbled that he was struggling to form a coherent sentence even in his own head. It was quite ridiculous in all honesty, the way he reacted was so uncalled for and very unlike him. Normally, he was cool and collected. In those few minutes that he was rambling to Grillby, he was anything but that. He could still feel his magic pooling at his cheeks, letting him know that the color had yet to fade.

Sans sighed and flopped out onto his bed. He’d deal with this later. Right now, all he wanted to do was nap. So, he did just that. Grabbing his blanket and pulling over him, he curled up and closed his eyes. It took some time, his thoughts interrupting his efforts to get to sleep, but after about twenty minutes he was able to fall into a light sleep.

The next time he interacted with Grillby would definitely turn out to be very, very interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i honestly don't have much to say other than that i hope you enjoy this chapter!


	5. I do care but I'm gonna pretend like I don't

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans almost gets fired and Grillby asks him if he wants to hang out. What a pleasant turn of events!

Sans held back the want to yawn, listening to his boss drone on about him slacking off at work lately. It was true, the time that he had been at work hadn’t been made very productive. Most of the time was spent either napping at his desk or taking a lot more time than necessary to complete an experiment or anything similar to that. It was Monday, and he had been slacking for quite a while now. He couldn’t really help it, in his defense. Sans was absolutely exhausted, his lack of sleep really starting to catch up with him. He didn’t mean to slack off, considering that he did enjoy science a lot. His mind was just running so slowly these days, hindering his thought process and in turn lowering his quality of work.

“yeah, i haven’t been doing well. i’m trying to improve my work ethics.” Stars, he sounded way too formal for his own liking. His boss was a middle aged man named Marcus, and he hadn’t aged too well. Not only that, but he was extremely strict and uptight. Sans tried to avoid him at all costs, but of course, he couldn’t all the time. He was still his boss, after all.

“You better, or you can kiss your job goodbye.” Marcus stated decisively, turning around afterwards and walking away. Sans was frozen in shock. Was he seriously going to fire him if he didn’t get his shit together fast enough?

With the thought of possibly losing his job in mind, he did attempt to work harder than he had been lately. That was quite hard though, his eyes threatening to close even while he was standing. Alphys had apparently been walking by while he was looking particularly panicked, stopping in her tracks to turn to the skeleton monster. “Hey, Sans. Are you alright?” She asked. Although him and Alphys didn’t hang out outside of work very often, he did consider her a good friend. She had good intentions in mind all of the time, even if things didn’t turn out the way she was hoping.

“has marcus ever threatened to fire you before?” He responded quietly, setting down the pen he had been gripping tightly in his boney hand. They had the same boss, considering that they both worked in the same department. Alphys seemed to notice what he was getting at, her eyes widening with shock.

“Oh, no! Did he try to fire you?” She questioned, worry seeping into her voice. 

Sans almost didn’t respond, not wanting to show his true emotions towards the situation. After a couple of moments, he decided against staying silent. “he didn’t try, he threatened.” Sans said nonchalantly, attempting to throw on a fake mask of confidence. He didn’t like it when his friends worried about him. He was supposed to be the one worrying, not them.

“That’s awful, I’m really sorry.” Alphys apologized, causing Sans to shake his head in response.

“it’s not your fault, it’s mine. i probably had it coming, since i’m such a lazybones.” Sans forced a grin and then a laugh. He didn’t necessarily like faking his mood, but he had been doing it for so long that it was hard to break the habit.

“Well, if you need anything, I’m here for you.” Alphys replied with a goofy grin. She could see right through Sans’ façade, he was extremely tired so it wasn’t very hard to do so. She wasn’t going to force the truth out of him, though. That was disrespectful and would probably just end up with him getting upset with her. In the time they had worked together, she began to notice how closed off of a monster he was. He had many secrets, and he probably didn’t want to reveal them for various reasons.

“thanks, alphys.”

“Anytime, Sans.” She walked off in the direction she had originally been heading in after she responded, resisting the urge to glance back at the skeleton once she had walked past him.

The rest of the day was a stressful blur, the thought of being fired nagging at the back of his mind the entire time. _welp, today turned out to be pretty shitty._ He thought to himself as he worked, noting that his shift was beginning to draw to a close. He couldn’t wait to get out, it felt as if the building was suffocating him. Sans knew it was all in his head, he couldn’t shake off the feeling though.

Before he knew it, the clock struck 4:00 and Sans was out of there in a flash. He almost forgot to sign out on his way out of the building, groaning inwardly as Anna cleared her throat once he reached for the handle of the front door. He shuffled back up to the front desk and held out his I.D., shoving in back into his pocket once she signaled that he was done. Sans walked outside, taking no time to teleport into his room.

He let out a relieved sigh once he was home, already feeling much more relaxed than he had been beforehand. He shrugged off the lab coat that he had to wear while working, tossing it and not really caring where it landed. He pushed off his dress pants as well, replacing them for a pair of his black shorts that he wore almost daily. His hoodie and the white turtle-neck was already on underneath, it was too cold to wear actual proper work attire to the lab these days. He almost forgot about his shoes, kicking them off quickly once he realized that he still had them on.

Sans sighed and flopped back onto the bed, grabbing his phone out of his hoodie pocket. To his surprise, he saw a text from Grillby.

grillbz:

‘Hey, are you doing alright? You haven’t texted me all day.’

Oh. Right. After the whole flirting incident, Sans hadn’t replied to any of Grillby’s messages. He was far too embarrassed at his actions to talk to the fire elemental, but he knew that he couldn’t avoid him forever.

sans:

‘yeah, i’m doing okay. sorry for not responding all day.’

Grillby replied pretty quickly, to Sans’ surprise.

grillbz:

‘It’s alright, I was just worried about you. That’s all.’

 _woah, he was worried about me? but why? i’m quite the trash can._ Sans thought, his thumbs hovering over the keyboard while he tried to think up a reply. He had never struggled texting someone so much before. The small skeleton was normally able to think of replies with the snap of his fingers, but this was a different story.

sans:

‘no need to worry, i am doing a-okay.’

Sans sent the text and sighed, setting his phone to his side. He was so thankful that Grillby didn’t seem to be upset with him. Instead of anger, it actually seemed like he was worried, which was a strange concept for Sans. He never liked it when others worried about him, so he made sure that no one ever had a reason to do so. He was wrote off as closed off and even mysterious by some. It didn’t bother Sans, though. As long as the people he cared about weren’t worrying about him, he was content. Or at least, he pretended to be. He was cut from his thoughts once his phone went off, signaling that someone had texted him. It was most likely Grillby, and his thoughts were confirmed once he picked up the phone and read who it was from.

grillbz:

‘Why don’t you stop by the bar? It seems like you could use a little company.’

Sans was once again left a little shocked. Did Grillby want to spend time with him? Of course, Sans wasn’t opposed to it. He was good friends with Grillby, and the fire elemental cooled him down when he was upset (heh). 

sans:

‘sure, i’ll be right over.’

Once he sent his response, he sat up slowly. He was disappointed that he had to get out of bed, but he assumed that it was worth it since he was going to go see his friend. He swung his legs over the side and slid off the bed, turning around quickly to grab his phone when he realized that he had left it behind. He dropped it into his hoodie pocket and teleported to the outside of the bar. Slowly he was starting to not care about the fact that the humans didn’t like his teleportation abilities. Oh, well. They’d just have to deal with it. Sans was way too lazy to walk anyways.

Sans pushed open the door and walked inside, immediately being greeted by quite a few of the customers. They were the regulars from back in the underground, and it quite honestly made Sans pretty happy to see that they were still coming. He smiled and waved at everyone before finally reaching his destination. Climbing up onto one of the barstools, he leaned against the bar counter after he got comfortable. “hey, grillbz. how’s it goin’?” He asked, his forced grin become much softer and more genuine.

“Hey, Sans. It’s going alright, it’s been a pretty slow day today.” Grillby replied, turning to face the skeleton monster. He always had the tendency to forget that Sans had the ability to teleport, causing him to be a little shocked when he would sometimes pop in out of nowhere. 

“well, it is a monday. many people are hard at work right now, unlike me,” Sans responded, a chuckle following afterwards. Grillby smiled at his response. The small skeleton always knew how to add humor to a situation, even if it ended up depreciating himself in the process.

“Didn’t you get off of work a bit ago?”

“i did, but it wasn’t like i was doing much while i was there, anyways.” Sans paused for a moment, as if trying to string together another sentence. “apparently, my boss doesn’t think i’m doing enough.”

“What do you mean?” Grillby asked. He asked so many questions when he was talking to Sans, he realized. He couldn’t really help it, though. Ever since that Friday night, Grillby realized that there was a lot more to Sans than just jokes and ketchup.

“he told me that if i don’t pick up the pace, i’ll get fired.” He responded nonchalantly, almost as if he just didn’t care. Grillby had a feeling that wasn’t the case. He’d known Sans ever since him and Papyrus arrived in Snowdin, and throughout that time he learned bits and pieces about the skeletons. He knew that Sans was very interested in science, and he remembered the excitement in the small monster’s eyes when he told Grillby that he had gotten a job on the surface as a scientist. So, his casual act had to be a fake. He just knew it.

“So, what are you going to do?” Of course, though, Grillby wasn’t going to call him out on it. He learned his lesson already when he asked him about the flirting the day before. Sans was so panicked and flustered, he thought that his face was going to implode on itself because of all of the magic concentrated in his cheeks.

“i dunno. probably just gonna wait it out and see what happens. if he fires me, he fires me. if he doesn’t, he doesn’t. it’s not like i can do anything to change his mind. the dude is a raging dick.” Sans rambled, his calm composure being very carefully maintained. “yo, grillbz. could ya get me a bottle of ketchup?”

“Sure.” Grillby quickly walked into the back room and grabbed a bottle, heading back out to hand it over to the short skeleton. He took it and thanked him before opening it up and taking a drink. “Damn, that guy sounds like a piece of work.”

“he sure is. hell, i don’t think i’ve ever seen him smile.” Sans complained, obviously not very happy with this person. From what he could tell, his boss did seem like quite the asshole.

They continued to have quite the pleasant conversation for an unknown amount of time before Grillby decided that he had something to ask of Sans. “Hey, could I ask you something?” Grillby questioned, glancing around the bar quickly to make sure that no one needed anything. Just like earlier, everyone seemed pretty content. After all, the people that were here right now were the ones that showed up every day, and they didn’t really ask for much. It was either a drink or some dog treats, both things he could easily supply them with.

“ask away, my friend.” Sans took another chug of the ketchup bottle, setting it down next to him once he swallowed as he waited for whatever Grillby had to say.

“Do you want to hang out sometime? You know, like actually hang out, and not while I’m working.” Grillby didn’t know what came across him, but he blurted it out anyways. He thought he was content seeing Sans only while he was working, but apparently he was wrong. Maybe they were closer than Grillby originally thought?

“sure, i’m down. as long as whatever we do involves a whole lotta nothing, i’ll be happy.” Sans said with a grin, absentmindedly messing around with the cap of his drink.

“I mean, I’ve got a shit ton of movies and a decently comfortable couch. Is that lazy enough for you?” Grillby teased, holding back a quiet laugh that threatened to spill out.

“that is definitely lazy enough for me.”

Huh. Guess they’d be actually hanging out pretty soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hereee we go, back at it with another chapter. honestly, this is the longest fanfic i've ever wrote. i've had some with more chapters, but they definitely weren't as lengthy as these ones. i'm pretty proud of myself. hope ya like it!


	6. I'm wide awake, I swear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans wakes up feeling pretty sad. Papyrus cheers him up, like always.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was super fun to write, it's also 3 in the morning i need help

“SANS, ARE YOU NOT GOING TO WORK TODAY?” Papyrus’ voice boomed from behind the door to the smaller skeletons bedroom, not wanting to barge in like he normally did.

“nah, bro. ‘m really not feelin’ up to it right now, sorry.” He mumbled, just barely loud enough for Papyrus to hear. Sans really wasn’t feeling up to it, he felt like shit. He wasn’t sick, just ridiculously sad. He knew that he had no reason to feel down and he was beating himself up over it, which didn’t help make him feel any better. “you can come in, ya know.”

Papyrus opened up the door and frowned at the sight. Sans hadn’t even gotten up yet, still buried under his covers. Not only that, he looked miserable. “Brother, are you alright?” His voice dropped down in volume and in octaves, a worried look overpowering his normally overjoyed one.

“yea, i’m doin’ alright. just not in the mood to deal with m’boss today, ya know?” Sans quickly pulled an excuse out of his ass, not wanting to explain to his younger brother exactly why he wasn’t going to attend work. Although he would always be content in being able to avoid his boss, that wasn’t the only reason why he was finding it hard to even get up today.

“Isn’t that going to upset him?” The taller skeleton questioned, sitting down on a part of the mattress that Sans’ body wasn’t taking up. It wasn’t very hard, as the mattress itself was much bigger than the small skeleton himself. It wasn’t very often that Papyrus spoke this quietly, only when he was truly upset or worried. When he was angry, he only seemed to get louder.

“he was livid when i told him that ‘m not comin’ in today. oh well, he can deal with it.” Sans shrugged it off. He had a feeling that taking the day off would come back to bite him in the butt later, but at the moment he honestly didn’t care.

“WELL, IN THAT CASE, I SHALL TAKE THE DAY OFF AS WELL!” Papyrus exclaimed, his excited persona finally returning to him. Thank the stars, because it hurt Sans so much to see his younger brother not feeling his best.

“oh, paps, ya don’t gotta do that. i’ll be okay, i’ve got tv and all that jazz.” Sans really didn’t want Papyrus to take the day off, only because he knew how much Papyrus actually enjoyed going to cooking school. He only called in saying that he wouldn’t be able to make it to class when he was really sick, and so far that had only happened once.

“I WOULD LIKE TOO, THOUGH.” He stated firmly, making it obvious that he wouldn’t give in without a fight. “WE CAN HAVE, LIKE A… BROTHERLY BONDING DAY!” 

“uh, i don’t think we’d be doing much bonding. we know quite a bit about each other already, ya know.” The older skeleton teased lightly, although he didn’t mean it. Spending the day with his brother would really improve the state of mind he was in at the moment, and he knew that it would.

“IT SOUNDED COOL, SHUSH.” Papyrus pouted jokingly before suddenly jumping up from the mattress, startling Sans a bit. “ALSO, PLEASE PICK YOUR SOCKS!” He added on at the end, looking around his brother’s room to see the huge sock pile in the corner.

“s’not happen’, paps. sorry to break it to- woah!” Sans was cut off by Papyrus swiftly pulling him out from under the covers and began to carry himself downstairs. “hey, i still haven’t woken up fully. ya gotta let me ‘ketchup’ before you pick me up like that.” He smirked proudly at his horrible pun, knowing that it cause a reaction from Papyrus.

Papyrus snorted in response, dropping him on the couch before sitting down next to him. “SANS, I WILL THROW YOU OFF OF THIS COUCH.” He threatened, even though both of them knew that the threat was fake. He’d never do something like that to his older brother, especially after finding out about his fragile health state all those months back.

“go ahead, i’ll just make some more puns about being in pain.” After he spoke, Sans summoned a blue tongue just so he could stick it out at his brother. He really had his priorities straight.

“THAT WAS VERY MATURE.”

“it was! so, what are we gonna watch?”

“I… I ACTUALLY HAVE NO CLUE.” Papyrus’ voice trailed off in thought, before his face lit up with what seemed to be an idea.

“do you have a clue now?” Sans asked curiously, letting the conjured organ dissipate as he spoke. He didn’t necessarily need it at the moment, so he was just wasting precious energy while he kept it there.

“NO, I REMEMBERED I HAVE TO CALL INTO WORK!” Papyrus jumped up from the couch energetically. “I SHALL BE RIGHT BACK! DON’T FALL ASLEEP WHILE I’M GONE.” He informed before pulling his phone out and walking into the kitchen.

“can’t make any promises, bro!” Sans called as Papyrus walked away, causing the taller skeleton to wave him off with his gloved hand. The smaller of the two snickered to himself before reaching for the remote, turning on the TV. He might as well look for something to watch while Papyrus was busy. Flipping through the channels, he could hear his brother’s loud rambling to whoever he was talking to on the other line. It brought a smile to his face. His brother was really great, he couldn’t deny it.

“I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAS RETURNED! I HAVE ALSO COME BEARING POPCORN!” Papyrus exclaimed as he reentered the living room. Just like he said, he was holding a large bowl of popcorn in one arm, causing Sans to raise his brow bones curiously.

“dang, you got that ready quickly.”

“IT’S CALLED MULTI-TASKING, MY DEAR BROTHER. YOU WOULD NOT KNOW OF IT!” The taller of the two teased, walking over to the couch and sitting back down to where he was sitting before. “HAVE YOU FOUND SOMETHING TO WATCH YET?”

“multi-tasking? what kind of bird is that?” Sans feigned ignorance, going along with the joke. He struggled to hold back a laugh, obviously quite amused with himself. “nah, not yet. ’m always pretty bad at finding stuff to watch. do ya wanna try?”

“I WOULD, HAND ME THE REMOTE,” Papyrus asked politely, and they did a little switch off with the remote and the popcorn. While his brother flipped through the channels, Sans popped a couple pieces of popcorn into his mouth. They tasted quite good, especially considering that he didn’t like popcorn very much. Papyrus ended up not being able to find anything either, so they settled on some show that Mettaton starred in. He had really made it big on the surface. Apparently, being a flamboyant robot really catches the media’s eye.

Just like Sans had thought, Papyrus really cheered him up. He still wasn’t in the greatest mood and probably wouldn’t do too well out in public, but now he was stable enough to the point that he could actually smile without having to force it. They spent half of the time watching whatever was on the TV and the other half teasing each other, with Sans cracking bad puns and Papyrus telling him off every single time. Of course, that only encouraged Sans more.

After some time had passed, the smaller skeleton was starting to get a bit tired. How could he not? The couch was very comfy. He accidentally let out a yawn, raising a hand slowly to cover his mouth. “ARE YOU FALLING ASLEEP?” Papyrus questioned, turning to face Sans.

“hmm? nooo, i’m not. i am totally awake!” Sans responded, actually attempting to stay awake. He was enjoying himself, but he knew that falling asleep was inevitable for him.

“ALRIGHT, IF YOU SAY SO.” His younger brother didn’t sound too convinced, and he had a reason to. Not only did Sans sound tired, he also looked it. His eyes were threatening to fall shut any second, and even his eyelights were flickering a bit. He was going to fall asleep at some point, no matter how hard he tried to fight it. He napped at least once a day, and it seemed like he was about to take his nap of the day.

Soon, Sans was out like a light bulb. He was leaning heavily into Papyrus’ side, and the taller skeleton stayed in place for a bit just so he was sure the other skeleton wouldn’t wake up the moment he moved. Once he was sure he was in a deep sleep, he carefully stood up and moved Sans so that he was in a more comfortable position. He then grabbed the blanket hanging over the back of the couch and placed it over his brother. Papyrus knew that Sans got cold easily, and thought that it’d be best if he didn’t wake up shivering. Afterwards, he checked the time. It was now 1:46 PM, so he decided that he might as well start on lunch.

Sans woke up about an hour later, the smell of food hitting his nostrils. He peeked at his surroundings with one eye, trying to keep out as much light as possible. He then realized that he was in the living room, remembering that he had fallen asleep while watching TV with Papyrus. Initially, he felt bad for falling asleep when they were both having a good time. It didn’t take much longer for him to notice that there was a blanket draped over him, and he didn’t feel as bad anymore. Of course his brother wouldn’t have been upset with him for falling asleep, he knew that sometimes he just genuinely couldn’t help.

After a couple minutes, he sat up and opened his eyes completely. Immediately regretting it afterwards, he used his hand to shield them from some of the light. “AH, BROTHER! YOU’RE AWAKE!” Papyrus suddenly chirped as he exited the kitchen. That was when everything clicked. Papyrus must’ve made lunch for them or something like that.

“i sure am. what’d you make?” Sans asked out of pure curiosity, still making no move to get from the couch. His voice was still pretty scratchy from being asleep, and his mind was nowhere from being fully functional yet. So, he wasn’t planning on getting up for a bit.

“I MADE LASAGNA!” Papyrus sounded pretty excited about the lasagna, he must’ve worked hard on it. Then again, when didn’t Papyrus work hard. He was passionate about just anything he did, even if he didn’t really like to do it. For example, cleaning the house, or going to get groceries. It was quite the opposite of Sans, who needed a lot of encouragement and motivation before he actually became passionate about getting something done. The only thing he really cared about while in the underground was getting sleep and taking care of his brother. It didn’t make for a very exciting and go-getter lifestyle.

“it smells good, ya must’ve done well,” Sans replied, and he wasn’t lying. It really did smell pretty good, but nowadays most of what Papyrus cooked smelled great. He had really gotten so much better at cooking, and the taller skeleton definitely knew it. Sans finally slid off of the couch, pulling the blanket around him and then walking to the dining table.

“I DID DO WE- SANS! YOU CAN’T JUST BRING THE BLANKET TO THE DINING TABLE!” Papyrus chided, crossing his arms and attempting to look upset. He didn’t succeed, he still looked very proud of himself for what he had just cooked.

“watch me,” The smaller of the two responded before plopping himself down into one of the chairs, the blanket still wrapped around him. “see, paps?”

Papyrus just groaned, not even trying to argue with Sans. He knew that he’d lose it, especially considering that Sans had just woken up. If he wanted to carry a blanket around, he was going to do it. Even if it was hot in the house. He assumed that it was comfortable, although Papyrus himself wouldn’t do it. “ANYWAYS, DIG IN!”

Sans noticed that the lasagna had already been served, bringing another grin to his face. Thank the stars he had his brother to take care of him, he did all of the things that Sans was just too lazy to do. Letting go of the blanket with his left hand, he picked up the fork and used it to cut off a piece of his food. The small skeleton once again conjured his tongue, but this time it was for a useful reason. He did want to actually be able to taste the meal, after all. He took a bite of it, humming in approval once he got a good taste of it. “that’s really good, paps. nice job.”

“I KNEW THAT YOU’D LIKE IT, BROTHER!” Papyrus spoke happily, his already there grin growing even larger. He seemed even prouder than he had before, which made Sans happy. He liked it when his brother was in a good mood, even if he himself was not in such a great one.

Lunch (or dinner? He had no idea what time it was) went by pretty smoothly, and Sans was about to get up to put his plate in the kitchen before he heard his phone go off. Curiosity got the best of him and he pulled it out of his hoodie pocket, smiling when he saw who it was from.

grillbz:

‘Hey, sorry if I’m bothering you. But are you free? Do you want to come over?’

sans:

‘i’ll be there in a sec’

Sans was nervous. For what reason, he had no idea. Oh well, he’d figure that out later. For now, he had to let his brother know where he was heading.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also i started my first genocide run and holy shit i have cried so many times already i am not meant to do things like this. i almost aborted it when it came to papyrus, i was so sad someone send help


	7. What's a sexuality?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grillby and Sans finally hang out and have a pretty decent time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dang, two chapters in one day??? i am on a roll. granted, i posted the other one at like three am, but oh well.  
> thanks for like 270 hits, this fanfic has been up for about a week now so it's insane to me that it already has so many. it might not be much, but it sure is a lot to me

“i’ll see you later, bro.” Sans waved at Papyrus, who smiled brightly at him in return. Sans was getting to leave for Grillby’s, not before his younger brother nagged him to at least put his plate in the sink. Begrudgingly, he did it. He wasn’t gonna be cleaning it though, that just wasn’t something he did. He was way too lazy for that.

“OKAY, BROTHER! HAVE FUN!” Papyrus exclaimed, sounding like an excited mother. In all honesty, he wasn’t too much different from one. Back in the underground, Sans always took care of Papyrus. However, on the surface the roles seemed to have switched. It was a nice break for Sans, not having to worry constantly about Frisk resetting the timeline again and on top of that take care of his younger brother. 

Sans nodded and then teleported out of their living room, popping in front of Grillby’s door. He was closed on Tuesday’s, which was a pretty strange day to close on but Sans wasn’t in any place to judge. He took a deep breath, taking one hand out of his hoodie pockets and knocked on the door quietly. There was this odd feeling in his chest, and he couldn’t exactly put his finger on what it was. It was almost a dizzying sensation, making him feel a bit lightheaded. Was it him just being nervous? It could be, although he had no reason to feel that way. Grillby was just his friend, he should be able to feel casual around him.

Sans was snapped out of his thoughts, hearing the door unlock. He glanced down at himself for a moment, making sure none of his clothing had wrinkled up awkwardly. wait. what the hell? why would i care about how i look? He scolded himself lightly, as he could normally go somewhere in the clothing that he slept in and he wouldn’t care.

“Hey, Sans. How are you?” Grillby greeted politely, seeming to be a bit on edge. In a way, that was how Sans was feeling as well.

“’m good, you?” The small skeleton responded quickly, his words coming out so fast that they blurred together. What was wrong with him? It wasn’t like this was the first time that he had talked with Grillby. Hell, he even slept on his couch just a couple days ago. He really needed to slap himself out of it before Grillby noticed and pointed it out.

“I’m doing okay, pretty tired though.” Sans could definitely relate to that. “Do you want to come in?” He then asked, an almost shy look flashing across his facial features for a split second. So, Grillby seemed to be facing the same struggles that Sans was. 

“no, i’d actually like to stand out here all day, thank you.” Sans joked, which seemed to break the ice that neither of them had even realized was there in the first place. Sans didn’t feel any less nervous than before, but the tension was finally broken.

“Just get inside, you dork.” The fire elemental teased and moved out of the doorway, allowing room for the other to walk in. Sans walked inside, making sure that he was in far enough for Grillby to be able to close the door. He didn’t waste any time in flopping down on the couch, relishing in it’s comfort. It wasn’t like he had done anything to strain his body, he was just tired of standing. “Already sitting down, I see?” 

“i was absolutely exhausted from standing for those three minutes, i had to sit before i passed out.” Sans was obviously joking, his smile a lot more mischievous than usual. Then again, when was Sans not joking?

“Uh-huh, sure.” Grillby shook his head slowly, his hands crossed over his chest. It wasn’t obvious he hadn’t fallen for the skeleton’s joke. After knowing him for so long, it would’ve been quite embarrassing if he had believed it. “Do you want anything to drink?” He offered, looking down at Sans with a soft smile playing at his mouth.

“do ya got ketchup?” Sans asked, kicking off his slippers gently. He looked so small on the large couch, although it wasn’t like the skeleton wasn’t already quite little in stature.

“I sure do, hold on.” Grillby responded and disappeared out his front door. He must’ve only had stored in the bar itself, which made sense. Sans was guessing that fire elementals didn’t really eat normal food, considering that they were made out of literal fire and all. While the skeleton was deep in his thoughts, Grillby walked back into the living room holding a bottle of ketchup. “Sans? Are you alright?” He asked, noticing that there was a very far off look visible in the other’s eye sockets. Well, it seemed like it didn’t take very long for Sans to zone off.

“huh? oh, yea. ‘m fine! got a little zoned out there, heh.” Cyan blue dusted his cheekbones as he came back to reality, not expecting Grillby to have come back that quickly. The elemental just chuckled in response and handed the bottle of ketchup to him. He reached over to the coffee table and grabbed the TV remote, sitting down next to Sans. There was a decent amount of space next to them so that they weren’t squished, but close enough so that they weren’t awkwardly far apart.

“So, what do you want to watch?” Grillby asked, turning to face the skeleton. Sans shrugged in response. He had already watched TV once today, and there hadn’t been anything interesting on then. That probably wouldn’t have changed by now. 

“eh, i dunno. there wasn’t anythin’ good on earlier, so i don’t think that it would’ve changed by now.” He explained, almost audibly sighing in relief when he felt the last of his magic drain from his cheeks. He blushed extremely easily around Grillby, and he normally wasn’t huge on blushing all the time. Whatever it was, it was turning Sans into a flustered mess. 

“I’ve got Netflix, there’s got to be something there, right?”

Well, if he had Netflix, why didn’t he just say that in the first place? Netflix would always be better than cable, hands down. It’s perfect for binge watching shows and eating your feelings away. “obviously, netflix is ten times better than cable,” Sans replied, repeating his thoughts. He stood quite strongly by them, only because he knew it was the truth.

“I’d have to agree with you on that one. There’s almost nothing interesting on TV these days.” Grillby complained lightly, and Sans could definitely see where he was coming from. For a couple months now, every show had suddenly become so boring. Other than Mettaton’s show, of course. Everything he was in always had something crazy going on. While Sans was once again lost in his thoughts, Grillby had already turned on Netflix and logged in. He snapped up into more of a sitting position, not completely depending on the back of the couch to keep him upright at this point. Grillby attempted to hold back a chuckle at Sans’ seemingly out of nowhere shock.

In return, Sans punched his arm jokingly, although it was so light of a hit that Grillby barely felt it. “hey, don’t laugh at me. that ain’t very nice, ya know.” He chided, even though he didn’t mean a word that was coming out of his mouth. 

Grillby went along with the joke, feigning pain from the ridiculously weak punch. “Wow, that really hurt me. I think I’m going to die,” He spoke, pretending to strain everything he said. He really was a bad actor, and Sans found it quite amusing.

“oh, shut up ya big baby. let’s look for something to watch now.” Sans opened up the cap to his ketchup bottle after he finished his statement, forgetting that he had been holding it tightly up to that moment. Grillby groaned overdramatically but did as told, beginning to scroll through all of the options. It took a bit to choose something, which was the one downfall of using Netflix. There were way too many options to just randomly choose something and be content. In fact, Sans could name a couple times where he spent about thirty minutes just trying to find something to watch. After a while, they both agreed to watch some comedy movie. The small skeleton was pretty happy with that, he could always use a good joke or two.

Grillby pressed play on the movie and set the remote to the side, keeping it close enough to him that it wouldn’t be hard to grab it if needed. Sans got comfortable, leaning against the couch again lazily. The taller of the two didn’t go to the extent that Sans was at (he was barely sitting up at this point), but he did lean back as well. The movie turned out to be pretty funny, so they both kept pretty funny except to laugh or add on to a joke made in a scene. It was pretty nice, all of the tension was gone from earlier now and the both of them seemed relaxed. Sans still had about half of the ketchup left, the movie distracting him a lot more than he thought it would.

For some unknown reason, Sans couldn’t help but steal glances at Grillby. He had no idea why, and was thankful that the fire elemental hadn’t noticed so far. He really did not want to have to explain why he was looking at his friend for no reason at seemingly awkward times, because he didn’t even have the answer himself. There was just something about the other that he couldn’t figure out. He was really… attractive.

Wait. What the hell? No. Last time Sans checked, he was straight. Straight as a pole. Then again, he’d never been attracted to either gender before, so how was he supposed to even know? Maybe there was a possibility that Sans wasn’t as straight as originally thought. He had no idea how to know for sure, though. He decided to just keep an open mind for now, not wanting to decide what his sexuality was at that moment. After all, he had absolutely no clue on the first thing about romance anyways.

“Sans, are you alright? You look a little flustered there.” Grillby’s worried tone of voice shot Sans right back into reality. He could feel his cheeks heating up once again, he just knew that his face had to be bright blue. He let out a nervous chuckle, glancing down at his lap for a moment to compose himself before turning to face Grillby again.

“yeah, ‘m perfectly fine! i just got lost in my thoughts, is all.” Sans wasn’t lying, he had been pretty deep into his own mind. He definitely wasn’t gonna tell Grillby what they were about, though. He most likely would be keeping them to himself until he figured out everything. The small skeleton attempted to read Grillby’s expression but failed, the glasses over his eyes making it pretty hard to guess what was going through his head. He wondered why Grillby always wore sunglasses, especially why he wore them inside. Maybe it was some sort of fashion statement? Who knew, because Sans obviously didn’t.

“Alright, if you say so,” Grillby responded. He didn’t seem to believe Sans very much. He assumed that the elemental would probably be pretty worried about him now, considering how badly he broke down to him on Friday. As long as he didn’t force answers out of the smaller of the two, Sans would be content. Sans tended to be closed off, even to the people that he cared about. So, if he was going to tell Grillby about his sudden realization of his unknown sexuality, he’d be telling him when he was ready.

They both turned their attention back to the movie playing on the screen, and it wasn’t long until they had forgotten about Sans’ little issue. Well, it wasn’t little. Sexuality pretty big part of someone, but Sans didn’t want to admit that. They had gone back to joking around, and the skeleton finally finished the ketchup bottle at some point. He leaned forwards sluggishly, placing it onto the coffee table in front of them. Getting comfortable again, he shoved his hands into his hoodie pockets and moved his gaze from the table to the screen once more.

Of course, Sans wasn’t the type of person to stay awake during an entire movie. It wasn’t long after he finished the bottle that his eyes began to feel a bit heavy. This time, he was really trying to fight it. Sans didn’t want to fall asleep at Grillby’s house, that would be a bit embarrassing. However, it was inevitable. After about fifteen minutes he fell into a light sleep, his head falling against Grillby’s side.

Grillby jumped slightly at the contact, his face heating up (as if it wasn’t already hot before). He glanced down and saw that Sans had fallen asleep, causing a soft smile to form on his face. The elemental thought about moving at first and letting Sans be, but he then realized that it’d most likely wake the skeleton up. He had just fallen asleep, so it’d make sense that he wasn’t in a very deep sleep. 

He settled for wrapping his arm around Sans’ shoulders, his face heating up even further than before (if that was even possible). The skeleton was so delicate, it felt like one wrong move and Grillby would break him by accident. He stayed as still as possible, just wanting the other to be comfortable while he slept.

Well, today turned out to be quite nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was superrrr rushed and not so good but i had fun writing it??? also, i have band camp starting tomorrow for the next two weeks. sooo my updates aren't gonna be as often as usual, but over the weekends i'll try to update twice or somethin to make up for it all.


	8. TV is really bad on the surface

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Basically just a filler chapter until something big happens, enjoy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's a new chapter wooo. i wrote this over the time span of three days, so it's most likely all over the place but i'm just glad that i got it finished. alsooo i'm planning for something real big to happen next chapter, i'm so excited to write it

“Sans, your brother is calling you. You’ve got to wake up.” Grillby shook Sans gently, not wanting to jostle him around too much. Sans gave off no signs that he was waking up, causing Grillby to sigh in defeat. “Sans, please.” He begged one more time, shaking the skeleton by the shoulders. This time, a little progress seemed to be made. Sans let out a soft whine of complaint, seemingly pretty comfortable.

“five more minutes… please.” He grumbled out, so quietly that Grillby barely heard him. After Sans finished speaking, an idea popped into the elemental’s head. He reached for Sans’ phone, which was hanging out of his hoodie pocket precariously and slid the bar near the bottom the screen to answer the call. Placing the phone by where Sans’ ear would be if he had them, he waited for Papyrus’ loud voice to come through the phone’s speaker.

“SANS! WHERE ARE YOU? IT IS GETTING A LITTLE LATE, IF YOU ARE STAYING THE NIGHT AT GRILLBY’S I’D LIKE TO KNOW.” Papyrus’ voice was so loud that Grillby could hear every word clearly, it was sure to wake Sans up. Within moments, his suspicions were confirmed. Sans jumped and scrambled to grab the phone, his cheekbones lighting up and his eyelights much wider than usual.

Huh. Sans looked pretty cute when waking up. Hold on, that isn’t right. Grillby wasn’t interested in Sans, he was sure of it. He may have been gay, but he would’ve known if he was attracted to the small skeleton by now… right?

“s-sorry, paps. i was asleep. what time is it?”

“IT IS SOMEWHERE AROUND 8:30 PM. IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON GOING TO WORK TOMORROW, YOU SHOULD PROBABLY START HEADING HOME, BROTHER.”

At the mention of his job, Grillby could see a look of annoyance flash across Sans’ facial features. It didn’t seem like it was going very well.

“shit, yeah, you’re right. i’ll be home soon, see ya then.”

“SEE YOU THEN!” Papyrus then hung up the phone with a click, and Sans dropped his phone in his lap and fell back against the couch once more.

“how- how long was i out?” Sans asked quietly, the initial shock from his brother’s loud voice wearing off as a much more calm and collected persona seemed to take over. That was most likely because he was still half asleep, having just woken up minutes before.

“About two hours, actually,” Grillby answered truthfully. He knew that the skeleton slept a lot, and didn’t even seem to be fazed by the nap. He could recall Sans telling him at one point that he almost always took one nap a day, and that it was habit. It seemed as if Sans hadn’t noticed that he had fallen asleep against Grillby. That was a shame. He had a feeling that Sans would’ve blushed after finding out, which would’ve been quite cute. Hold on, what?

“holy shit, really? why didn’t ya wake me up?” Sans didn’t seem angry, just curious. That was a very good thing, as Grillby knew that when angry, Sans was fucking terrifying.

“You seemed really tired beforehand, so I just let you sleep. You probably needed it, be honest.” He was being honest, Sans always did look totally beat. There were permanent bags under his eyes and his posture was normally very slouched while standing. That could be written off as just being lazy, however, at closer look it wasn’t hard to tell that it was from lack of a good night’s sleep. Nobody ever brought it up to the small skeleton, though. That was possibly because they didn’t want to bother him, or maybe they thought that Sans just didn’t want others to know about his struggles. It was probably the latter.

“grillbz, we both know that ‘m always tired,” Sans joked, although there was truth to his words. Sans knew it, and Grillby could tell. He yawned a couple moments later and sat up a little straighter, stretching his bones out. He had no idea why he felt so well rested, it had only been a two hour nap, after all. Oh, well. He guessed that he’d never know why. Maybe it had something to do with Grillby’s couch.

“I guess so,” Grillby chuckled after he spoke, watching the small skeleton fondly. “Do you want to stay until you fully wake up, and then go home?” The elemental didn’t want Sans to walk or teleport while still in a groggy state. It could be dangerous. He didn’t want to risk his friend getting hurt.

“if that’s alright with you, then that’d be sansational,” Sans giggled at his own pun. It wasn’t hard to see that he was barely awake, especially considering how amused he seemed to be at the horrible pun.

“Oh, shush. That was bad, even for your standards.” Grillby teased, although secretly he really enjoyed Sans’ sense of humor. It always seemed to be spot on, no matter what mood the skeleton was in.

“uh, that was great. sanstastic, in fact.” Sans took it even a step further, winking playfully and throwing gun hands in Grillby’s direction. Grillby shook his head slowly, not even bothering to reply. The small monster didn’t seem to mind and just laughed, obviously very proud of himself. 

For the next ten minutes they had a pretty casual conversation. Sans, of course, dropped in a couple puns. Grillby pretended to be annoyed, although every now and then he’d let out a quiet chuckle.

“hey, i think ‘m ready to go. i gotta brother to take care of, ya know?” Sans joked lightly, secretly knowing that in reality Papyrus was the one who took care of him now.

“Alright, be careful on your way home.” Grillby nodded as he spoke, realizing that he sounded like a worried mom afterwards.

Throwing gun hands in Grillby’s direction and nodding in what seemed like agreement, Sans smiled as he attempted to think of a reply. “don’t worry, i’ll be home in a flash.” It took a moment for the fire elemental to understand his pun, but groaned once he finally got it. Sans just laughed in response, standing up from the couch slowly. “i’ll see ya later, hopefully sooner than later.” He stated with a smile.

“That sounds good to me, see you soon.” Grillby returned the smile, and stood up as well. Walking up to the front door, he unlocked it and opened it up for Sans. Sans followed him and thanked him for opening it before heading out the door. They said their final goodbyes, and the skeleton waited for Grillby to close his front door before teleporting into his own living room.

“SANS! DON’T STARTLE ME LIKE THAT!” Papyrus’ shocked voice caught Sans’ attention automatically, causing him to turn around to face his brother. He was sitting on the couch with a plate of spaghetti in his lap while watching some show on TV. Sans headed over to the couch, flopping down on it next to his younger brother.

“sorry, sorry. didn’t mean to startle you out of your skin like that.”

“…WE DON’T HAVE SKIN.” 

“shit. i just now realized how stupid that sounded.” Sans shook his head out of amusement. He was still pretty tired, so some of the things that came out of his mouth probably wasn’t going to make much sense. “anyways, what’cha watchin’?” 

“I DON’T KNOW, HONESTLY. SOME SOAP OPERA?” Papyrus seemed genuinely confused, meaning that he probably that settled on the show after searching for a while. Upon looking at the TV, Sans recognized it.

“yo, i was watching that a couple days ago. it’s really bad, isn’t it?” Sans chuckled, leaning against the back of the couch to get comfortable. It was the exact same as he remembered it. The acting was terrible, and every event that would happen seemed way too predictable. It was amusing to watch, but only if you planned to make fun of it in the process.

“IT IS HORRIBLE, I DON’T KNOW HOW SOME PEOPLE ENJOY THIS.”

“some people must just have really low standards when it comes to tv shows.” He shrugged, honestly having no clue why anybody in their right minds would enjoy it.

“APPARENTLY SO.” Papyrus seemed to agree with Sans, shaking his head slowly at the awful show. “SO, HOW DID HANGING OUT WITH GRILLBY GO?”

“it went pretty well. we watched some movie and just hung out on the couch. i took a pretty bomb nap too,” He explained quickly, shoving his hands in his pockets. They really hadn’t done much, but Sans had enjoyed himself. Besides, he probably wouldn’t have had much fun if they actually decided to go out and do something, considering how lazy the skeleton tended to be. He’d much prefer sitting on a couch than going out in public and actually have to be a functioning member of society. That was just too much work for his liking.

“OF COURSE, YOU’D BE THE GUY TO TAKE A NAP AT A FRIEND’S HOUSE.” Papyrus chided lightly. He shook his head again, but this time it was aimed towards Sans. The smaller skeleton just chuckled and took out his phone momentarily to check if he had received a text from Grillby. He almost pouted when he saw that he hadn’t, but held back as that was probably uncalled for.

“hey, hey. he could’ve woken me up. he let me sleep, he said i looked tired.” He defended himself, raising his hands up in defeat. It was a good thing that he had let him sleep, he really needed as much as he could get.

“I DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW SOMEONE WHO SLEEPS AS MUCH AS YOU DO COULD STILL BE TIRED,” his younger brother stated, seemingly confounded as to why Sans would ever have a reason to be tired. Although, when he looked at him carefully, he did notice the large bags under his eyes and the way that his smile sometimes looked a little forced. Papyrus shrugged it off, thinking that maybe it was Sans’ job that caused him to look like that.

“heh, like you said, i’m just a pile of lazybones.” Sans joked, chuckling at his own pun afterwards.

“SANS! STOP THAT NONSENSE!”

“nah.” He refused, even though it was very obvious that he was just messing with Papyrus. “yo, i’m gonna be up in my room. i have a skeleton of work to get done.”

“LIKE WHAT?” Papyrus just ignored Sans’ pun, not wanting to encourage him. He noticed that the more he called out the small skeleton on his jokes, the more he tended to crack them.

“like, laying in bed and doing literally nothing.” Sans drawled as if it were the hardest thing he’d have to do all day. He would have to walk up the stairs, and in a way, that was some pretty strenuous work.

“THAT IS NOT A LOT OF WORK!”

“it sure is to me, see ya later, bro.” Sans sent a pair of gun hands towards Papyrus and stood up from the couch slowly. Even getting up from the couch felt like quite a bit of work. Wow, he sure was quite lazy.

“SEE YOU, BROTHER. ARE YOU GOING TO WORK TOMORROW?” Papyrus asked curiously. Sans honestly wasn’t entirely sure if he wanted to go to work the next day. As much as he loved his job, it just felt like way too much lately. He’d probably have to go, he didn’t want his boss to get more on his case than he already was. 

“i probably will. i can’t miss too many days, ya know?” He stopped at the foot of the stairs while he waited for his younger brother’s response, just in case it led into another conversation. Even though they had known each other for literally their entire lives, they always had something to talk about. It was nice to have someone that always had a new topic to discuss with you, especially since those types of people don’t come around very often.

“THAT MAKES SENSE.” It seemed as if Sans was in the clear to go into his bedroom, which he wasn’t complaining about. As much as he loved his brother, he was always content in just laying in bed alone.

“i always make sense!” Sans exclaimed as he began to walk up the stairs, his hands shoved in his pockets like always. Papyrus didn’t respond with words, just groaning dramatically. He loved it when his brother pretended to be annoyed with him, it was quite amusing. Sans reached the top of the staircase shortly afterwards and turned to Papyrus. Shrugging his shoulders, he chuckled and headed over to his bedroom. He opened up the door and after he got inside, closed it behind him. Today had been a pretty good day, much better than it would’ve been than if he had actually gone to work. Sans was hoping that he wouldn’t have to put up with his boss the next day, but considering that he had just missed a day for no apparent reason, it was inevitable. 

He didn’t even bother changing and just flopped down onto his bed, pulling out his phone while he landed. Grillby finally texted him, which brought a soft smile to his face. He didn’t hesitate to reply, which momentarily made him question his priorities.

Sans didn’t get much sleep that night. Not because of the nightmares, but because of the fact that he spent hours texting Grillby. They’d become almost like best friends in a very short amount of time, and although they had been friends for quite a while beforehand it was a little strange.

Oh well. Sans was pretty happy, and so was Grillby.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> holy shit this has 40 kudos already??? that's a lot??? i'm so happy that people are actually enjoying this???


	9. Guess who just lost their job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans gets fired and cries a ton.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soo this was the big thing i was planning, and it's actually the longest chapter i've written so far. i had a lot of fun with it, hope ya like it!

“You’re fired.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Did I stutter?”

Well. Wasn’t this just lovely. Sans had just lost his job, and for no apparent reason either. It had been about a week since Marcus warned him about it, and out of nowhere Sans was called into his office today. “may i ask why you’re firing me?” He was attempting to be polite, knowing that cussing out the dickhead wasn’t going to get him anywhere.

“No, you may not. You have the rest of your work shift to pack up and get out of here. Your last paycheck will be coming in on Sunday.” Marcus deadpanned, obviously quite pissed off with the small skeleton. For whatever reason, Sans would never know. He thought the entire situation was quite unfair. Had he really been doing that badly? He couldn’t have been, he was good at his job and he knew it. It’d just been a bit hard recently to keep up considering how sleep deprived he was. Sans assumed that if he had a better boss that this wouldn’t have happened.

“alright, alright, whatever.” Sans turned around and began to head towards the door before he got an idea. “oh, marcus?” He asked, fake kindness dripping from his voice like venom. He faced his old boss once he had reached the door itself, a mischievous smile playing at his mouth.

“What is it, Sans?”

“fuck you.” Sans deadpanned, his eyelights disappearing momentarily as well as his smile. “that’s all, see ya never!” He then added on, returning to the fake persona that he had been sporting moments before. His smile was so big that it was almost sickening. Turning on his heel, he pushed open the door and walked out, but not before giving Marcus a middle finger to finalize his statement.

Today was definitely not his day. He had woken up on the wrong side of the bed and almost snapped at Papyrus, which ended up in him becoming a blubbering mess and apologizing twenty times. What had made him so emotional? He hadn’t the slightest clue. While getting ready, he kept dropping important things like his phone and the ketchup bottle that he was drinking for ‘breakfast’ (thank the stars that it was plastic). Now, to top it all off, Sans had been fired from his dream job. That news sure was going to be fun to break to Papyrus. 

He attempted to locate Alphys, wanting to let her know that he wouldn’t be coming back anytime soon but failed in doing so. Sans decided that a text would do, and he’d go more into depth explaining what exactly happened if she wanted to know. Before walking out of the lab door that led into the lobby, he took once last fleeting glance at the lab that he’d grown to be so fond of. Sans really did enjoy science, and although he’d never admit it to someone, he was deeply upset that he’d been fired. How the hell was he supposed to get a job now?

Sans sighed deeply and walked out, ignoring Anna while she tried to get his attention. There was no point. He’d never be coming back to work there again anyways, right? Why should he even bother? He walked out the main double doors, frowning to himself. This wasn’t right. It was only ten something in the morning, and Sans wouldn’t have gotten out of work for hours at this point. He hated the feeling. Working as a scientist had been the one job he ever enjoyed, and now it had been ripped from him by an asshole of a man.

He decided that sulking outside probably wasn’t the best way to go and teleported into his room, pulling off his lab coat and letting it drop onto the floor. He didn’t bother to pick it up, there was no point in doing so anyway. Changing out of his work clothing, Sans pulled on a pair of gray joggers and a big white t-shirt. He wanted to be as comfortable as possible, he was already miserable as is and didn’t need awkward fitting clothing to make that mood worse. Sans sat down on the edge of his bed and realized that his phone was still in the pocket of his lab coat. Groaning, he reached over to the point where he almost fell off of the mattress. Luckily for him, he was able to get his fingertips to touch the coat and drag it over. He fished his phone out of the pockets and opened it up. He had a text from Grillby, it showed that he had received it around thirty minutes beforehand.

grillbz:

‘Do you want to come over after your shift is over? I’ll be working, but business is slow today so we can still talk.’

Sans smiled at the offer, it was kind of him. He wasn’t entirely sure if he was up to it, though. He wasn’t in the best of moods, and he didn’t want to risk getting drunk around Grillby again. Last time that happened, he had completely spilled all of his deepest secrets.

sans:

‘i’ll think about it. something happened today at work and i just need a bit of time to wind down, ya know?’

grillbz:

‘I understand. Are you okay?’

sans:

‘i’m wonderful’

That was a lie. It was absolute bullshit. Sans was anything but wonderful. He felt like he could burst out into tears at any given moment, even if he didn’t necessarily want it to happen. Today hadn’t just not been his day. It had been purely awful. He dropped his phone beside his pillow and curled up on his side. Thank the stars that Papyrus wasn’t home yet, because he was not ready to explain to his younger brother why he looked so miserable.

After about ten minutes, he just couldn’t hold it in any longer. He began to sob, cyan tears running down his cheekbones and falling down onto his pillow. Sans attempted to wipe away the tears, but to no avail. They just kept coming, and showed absolutely no sign of stopping. Picking up his phone, he opened up the thread with Grillby.

sans:

‘scratch that. i’m fucking horrible’

He typed out the message with shaky phalanges and hovered his thumb over the send button, debating whether he should do it or not. Sans must’ve sat there for about three minutes before he finally took a deep breath and just pressed send. It really didn’t take long for Grillby to reply.

grillbz:

“Sans. Please come to the bar, tell me what’s going on.’

Even in his panic stricken state, Sans still found himself smiling at the message. Grillby was so sweet, it meant a ton to the small skeleton. He got up reluctantly from the bed and didn’t even bother changing. All he did was slip on a pair of slippers and pull on his beloved blue hoodie. Afterwards, he leaned down and picked up his phone. Checking it one last time, he shoved it in his pocket and sighed. He tried to wipe away the tears again, although once again not successful in getting them to stay gone. After thirty seconds of relentlessly wiping away his tears, Sans gave up and teleported to the outside of Grillby’s bar. Pushing open the door, he walked inside and headed up to his usual seat. His hood was pulled over his head and his eyes were trained on the floor, not wanting to make eye contact with someone. Once he reached the bar stool he had been aiming for, he climbed up onto it and pulled the hood down, not feeling the need to hide his face any longer.

“hey, grillby.” He greeted the fire elemental weakly, sadness evident in his tone of voice. He placed his elbow on the table and used his hand to support his head, leaning onto it heavily. Grillby seemed to have been organizing something before he heard Sans’ voice, which caused him to stop in his tracks. Turning around to greet him, his smile automatically dropped as he noticed the way Sans looked. He was frowning, and tears were streaming down his face nonstop. Whatever had happened, it must’ve been bad.

“What happened???” Grillby asked, heading over to the bar counter quickly. He was worried, and couldn’t help but show it.

“it’s n-“ Sans thought about lying straight through his teeth, but snapped his mouth shut once he realized that Grillby probably wouldn’t believe it. He was practically sobbing at the moment, ‘it’s nothing’ most likely wasn’t going to cut it. “i got fired.” He stated firmly, trying his best to keep his voice from wavering as he spoke.

“Fired? Why??” Grillby was shocked. There was no reason as to why Sans should’ve been fired. Yes, he was very lazy, but he loved his job. He loved science as a whole. What could he have done that was so bad for him to lose that job?

“heh. beats me. marcus called me into his office today to break the news. what a lovely guy, ain’t he?” Sans was trying to stay as lighthearted as possible, even with tears staining his cheekbones. That was just his thing. Mask up the sadness with humor and fake smiles, and that’d do it. Even if it was obvious that he wasn’t doing very well, like in that moment, he’d still try and cover it.

“That guy seems like a huge asshole, from what you’ve told me.” Grillby frowned after he spoke. From what Sans had told him about Marcus, he seemed like one of the biggest jerks someone could ever hope to meet. Last time Sans mentioned him, it had been early last week. He remembered him saying that Marcus threatened to fire him, although he didn’t think that he’d actually do it. Grillby had agreed with him. Today, the both of them had been proven terribly wrong.

“he is. he refused to tell me why he fired me too. i don’t understand how he got so high up in the ranks, anyways. he doesn’t deserve it!” Sans had begun to sound a bit more angry than sad at this point, clenching and unclenching his small fists every now and then. In all honesty, he was angry. He’d just lost his dream job for no apparent reason, he had a right to be angry.

“Do you think there’s any way that you could get it back?” Grillby asked, secretly hoping that Sans would say yes. Sadly, that was not what he heard in response.

“nah. not while he’s still the boss. i’ll probably have to make a living by selling h’dogs again or some shit like that.” Sans’ frown deepened as he spoke and it pained Grillby to see him like that. Grillby walked into the backroom and fished out a bottle of ketchup for the skeleton. Heading back out, he handed it to him. “thanks, grillbz.” Sans thanked him and messed with the cap for a moment before taking it off completely.

“How are you going to tell your brother?”

“i have absolutely no clue. i’m pretty nervous, though. ‘m worried about how he’s gonna react.” Sans seemed to think that the bar counter was suddenly much more interesting than the restaurant surrounding him, as he angled his stare downwards. It seemed like he was ashamed of losing his job, even though it really wasn’t his fault.

“You know he won’t be upset. He’s Papyrus, after all. One of the kindest and most accepting people you could ever meet.” Grillby assured the small monster. He knew that Sans already knew that, they were brothers after all. However, in his panic stricken state, it made sense that he’d freak over something as simple as that.

Sans nodded at this, lifting his head up to gaze at Grillby. “you’re right, i shouldn’t be too worried about him.” The tears had slowly come to a halt, tear tracks beginning to dry on his cheek bones. Even though he was no longer crying, he still looked absolutely miserable.

The two of them ended up talking for hours, only halting their conversation so Grillby could go clean a table or take an order. Other than that, they were constantly changing topics to keep Sans’ mind off of the events that occurred earlier that morning.

“welp, i should probably get going. papyrus mentioned that he’d be gettin’ home early today so i might as well break the news now. if i don’t soon, i know that ‘m gonna procrastinate.” Sans rambled, handing Grillby his now empty ketchup bottle. Hopping off of the bar stool, he waited for the elemental’s response before he left.

“Alright, I’ll see you later. Good luck.” Grillby waved and him and smiled after he finished speaking. He really hoped that Papyrus would help to raise his mood a bit more than Grillby already had, he hated to see Sans so sad. Of course, he had a right to be upset though. He had just gotten fired after all.

“see ya, grillbz.” Sans waved and with that, quickly teleported home. A few humans that were in the building were quite shocked at that, but the monsters seemed unfazed.

Sans appeared in his living and glanced around, attempting to seek out his younger brother. It shouldn’t be that hard, he was a giant compared to the smaller monster, after all. “bro? where are you?” He asked, almost slumping his shoulders in defeat before he heard a voice in the kitchen.

“I’M IN THE KITCHEN, BROTHER.” Papyrus’ voice echoed out into the living room, which brought a smile to Sans’ tired facial features. He headed into the kitchen and hopped up on the counter, wanting to seem as nonchalant as possible. Papyrus was at the stove, and when he heard his brother shuffle into the kitchen he automatically turned around. “HELLO! ...WHY ARE YOU ON THE COUNTER?”

“’cause i wanted to be on the counter.” Sans shrugged, seeming as if he didn’t have a care in the world. He did, though. He had lost his job, for stars sake. That’s definitely something to care about.

“WELL- ALRIGHT. WHY ARE YOU HOME SO EARLY, ANYWAYS?”

Sans flinched at the question slightly. “well, ya see- uh, i lost my job.”

“WHAT???”

“i-i lost my job.”

“NO, I HEARD YOU. I’M JUST SHOCKED! WHY?”

“it’s a long story. let’s just say that my boss is a dick and shouldn’t be allowed to work anywhere.” Sans hated that man with a passion. He could handle him back then, but the past two weeks had been made an absolute hell because of him.

“I’m… I’m so sorry, brother.” Papyrus’ voice was still loud, but it had definitely become much quieter than it had been moments ago. It sounded a lot more caring, not to mention sad. Sans hated seeing his brother sad, it broke his poor non-existent heart.

“it’s okay, really. i probably had it coming, anyways.” Sans shrugged. Papyrus didn’t seem to happy with that response, as he walked up to his older brother and grabbed him by the shoulders. Shaking them gently, he shook his head.

“No, you didn’t have it coming. You loved your job, you always put everything you had into it.”

“not for the past week, apparently.”

“He fired you because of a week of not so spot on work??? That’s ridiculous!” Papyrus seemed a bit angered now, but not at Sans. He was angry at the man who fired him. Sans yelped a bit as Papyrus suddenly picked him up from the counter and pulled him into a tight hug. “I am so sorry, you don’t deserve this.”

“it’s- it’s really okay.” Sans lied straight through his teeth, although his calm façade was slowly breaking down by the second. He hugged his brother back and buried his face into his shoulders, sobs wracking his small frame once more. It wasn’t okay, it really wasn’t.

Papyrus didn’t have any words, he just stood there and held his brother in an attempt to comfort him. He rubbed his back comfortingly and let Sans cry into his shoulder.

Sans was so thankful for Papyrus.


	10. "You're drunk." "so?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Undyne gives Alphys and Sans quite the idea. Sans has a good time at Grillby's place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wanted to thank the user kit (don't think that's actually your user oops) for helping me with the whole getting back at marcus idea. i wouldn't have thought of it on my own so thank youuu
> 
> also NFSW content???? maybe?? i don't really think making out counts as that but just in case some people are sensitive to that kind of stuff i'll put the warning anyways

It was Thursday, three days after Sans had been fired from his job. He was over at Alphys and Undyne’s place and he had just broken the news to his old coworker. She was mad, livid, in fact. He’d never seen Alphys so angry before, although he assumed that there was a first for everything.

“So, he just fired you? Just like that?” She asked, walking back into the living room with a cup of tea and a bottle of ketchup in her hands. Sitting down, the lizard monster handed the bottle to Sans, who took it gratefully. Opening the cap up, he took a small swig and then placed the bottle in his lap.

“yep, that’s exactly what he did. i was expecting at least an explanation, but i didn’t even get that.” Sans responded, leaning against the back of the couch and bringing his legs up to a crisscross position. Alphys’ facial expression seemed to fall a bit, a frown overtaking her normally cheerful (albeit shy) grin.

“That’s ridiculous. So, you’re just gonna let it happen?” Alphys questioned, almost sounding a bit bewildered that Sans was just gonna let it happen. Sans took another drink of the ketchup and nodded afterwards.

“i sure am.”

“So, nothing to get him back or anything?”

“undyne is really rubbin’ off on ya.”

“I mean, we do live together, after all.”

At the sound of her name, Undyne popped her head into the living room doorway, a questioning look written upon her facial features. “What are you- oh, hey punk!” She walked in as she spoke, her signature grin replacing the initially confused expression.

“yo, undyne.” Sans greeted, sending a smile in her direction. He wasn’t exactly close with the fish monster, but he’s had conversations with her from the times that Papyrus dragged him along to his cooking lessons. They never went well, and they were all lucky if a small fire hadn’t been started in the process of attempting to cook spaghetti.

“Hey, babe. I could really use your help here.” Alphys told Undyne, gesturing her over with a single hand. Undyne listened, walking over to where the two were sitting and kneeling down so she was at their eye level. Stars, she was so tall. Taller than Papyrus, even.

“Well, I’m all down to help. What’s goin’ on?” She asked curiously, glancing back and forth between the two monsters before settling her gaze back on Alphys once the lizard monster readied herself to speak again.

“So, Sans here got fired for no reason just a couple days back. We need your help thinking up something to get him back.” Alphys explained to a now very interested Undyne. Her eyes (well, eye) lit up at the mention of getting revenge on someone, especially on such an asshole like Marcus. Because of Alphys, she knew quite a bit about the man, specifically all of the shitty things he’s done to his employees.

“Well, that’s simple. Just get a couple of videos of him being shitty to his employees and send them in to whoever his boss is. The more dirt you can get on him, the better it will be.” Undyne said surely, as if she’d had this idea in her head for weeks. Even though she seemed all brawn, she was a lot smarter than someone might think at first.

“i definitely won’t be able to get the videos. i’m not even entirely sure if ‘m even allowed in the lab at this point.” Sans lamented, suddenly the realization of him not having his job hitting him once again. Alphys seemed to notice this and she cut in almost immediately, not wanting him to spiral down into some dark thoughts. It was something she was quite familiar with, back when she accidentally created the amalgamates. 

“I can get the videos, I’ll just have to be discreet about it.” Alphys confirmed, seemingly all in. It was strange, seeing Alphys so confident. Back when Sans first met her, way back when he worked with her and someone he couldn’t quite remember, she was extremely shy and stuttered constantly. He assumed that she was comfortable enough around him to show off her true side now, and it was nice for Sans to know that she considered him a friend.

“That’s perfect. I say that once you have around five you should be okay to send them in.” Undyne responded, mischievously grinning at the thought of knocking the asshole down. Sans nodded in agreement, slowly warming up to the idea. If they were somehow able to get Marcus fired, there was a possibility that he could get his job back. The idea excited Sans to no extent.

The three of them discussed the plans for about thirty more minutes, and Sans began to warm up to Undyne a bit more as time passed on. She was quite funny, he noted. He hoped that today wouldn’t be the only time that they actually talked, because Sans could always use another friend. He didn’t have very many, after all. Soon, he pulled out his phone to check the time, his eye lights widening almost comically. “shit, i’m sorry guys. i told grillby that i’d hang out with him once he closed up the bar.” He said, sounding a bit panicked at the fact that he’d almost been late. Then again, when was he not almost late to something?

Grillby closed early on Thursdays, which was quite a strange day to close early on, but Sans wasn’t there to judge. He assumed that the fire elemental had a reason to do so, considering that running the bar was the way that he made his living.

“Oh, it’s okay! I’ll text you after work tomorrow to let you know if I was able to get anything!” Alphys responded with a smile, completely understanding that Sans had places to be. She gave the skeleton a hug, who didn’t hesitate to hug back. He’d been a lot more touchy lately, accepting hugs a lot easier than he normally would. It was most likely because his soul was aching for comfort, but he’d never admit it.

“that sounds good, thanks, alphys.”

“No problem!”

“See ya later, punk.” Undyne said, grinning widely before winking (or maybe just blinking. Sans couldn’t tell). “Use protection!”

“there is nothing going on between us!” Sans immediately defended himself, blue magic pooling at his cheekbones and causing them to burn brightly. She must’ve known about Grillby’s sexuality, or maybe heard about how much they’d been hanging out lately. Whatever the reason was, Sans was still extremely embarrassed.

“Mhm, that totally explains the blush that you’ve gotten on your face there, hm?” The fish monster teased playfully, which didn’t entirely help the color on his cheeks lighten at all.

“there is absolutely nothing going on!” He repeated his last phrase. Sans had absolutely no idea why he was getting flustered. He knew that there was absolutely nothing going on between them, so there was no reason for him to get so defensive and shy about it. Oh, well. He’d deal with it later.

“Whatever you say, punk. See ya later!” She exclaimed innocently, as if she hadn’t just teased Sans to the point to where he resembled a blueberry. Sans just nodded in response, looking at Alphys to see her expression. It seemed that she wouldn’t be much help, she was struggling to laugh just as much as Undyne was.

“see ya later, guys.” He grumbled. Sans wasn’t angry at them at all, he couldn’t bring himself to do so. He was embarrassed, though, and it showed on his face. “there’s nothing between us.” He muttered right before he teleported to the inside of Grillby’s now closed up bar, as he wanted to get the last word in. After about a moment of arriving, he heard his phone ding.

science nerd:

‘I have literally never seen you get so defensive about something, it was funny.’

Sans almost groaned aloud at his friends text, quickly typing out a reply.

sans:

‘shhhh’

Sans then shoved his phone in the pocket of his hoodie, heading to the back room which was where the stairs leading to Grillby’s apartment were. He was a couple minutes late, but he hoped that the elemental wouldn’t mind. Once he reached the front door, he pulled his hand out of his pocket and knocked it a couple of times. It didn’t take very long for it to open, considering that Grillby had been expecting him.

“Hey, Sans. Come on in,” He greeted politely, grinning as he gestured for the skeleton monster to walk in. He was dressed quite casually compared to how he normally looked while on the job, and- holy shit, he looked really attractive. 

“heya, grillbz.” Sans responded as he walked inside, watching the taller male as he closed and relocked the door behind him. He walked over to the couch and sat down, his thoughts suddenly racing once more. Sans had just thought that Grillby was attractive, and now he could not get it out of his head. 

“You alright? You look a little flustered, there.” Grillby asked, snapping Sans out of his thoughts. He glanced up at the other and smiled nervously, quickly attempting to mask what he was thinking about.

“’m totally fine! my bones are just feelin’ a little rattled.” Sans threw in a pun, trying to seem as casual as usual. Grillby didn’t seem to buy it, but he shrugged it off.

“Alright, if you say so. Do you want some ketchup?”

“actually, do ya think you could hook me up with some alcohol?” Sans asked, leaning back against the couch. He knew that he’d be an absolute mess if he didn’t get some sort of substance in him. Grillby seemed a bit hesitant but then nodded, heading into the kitchen.

He came back a couple minutes later with a tray of about five shots, and a beer which was probably for himself. “bringin’ out the big boys already, hm?” Sans asked jokingly, sitting up straight as Grillby set the tray down on the coffee table and sat down next to him.

“I know that you’re gonna end up wanting more and I don’t have the energy to keep getting up so I just brought some all at once.” He explained, opening up his beer with seemingly no issue. Sans was slightly in awe at that, he could never imagine opening a beer with just his bare hands. Albeit, he didn’t drink beer so he didn’t necessarily have to worry about opening them in the first place. 

“you’ve got a point there,” Sans chuckled in response, reaching to grab his first shot of the night. 

It didn’t take long for Sans to down all of the shots, meaning that it also didn’t take long for him to get decently tipsy. Instead of being an emotional wreck this time, though, he was a flirty wreck. It seemed that when Sans wasn’t in a terrible mood, he tended to be much more flirty than anything else. The two of them were able to hold an okay conversation, although every now and then the small skeleton would drop in a few flirty innuendos here and there.

“you know what i thought when i first got here?” He slurred, his hands gesturing while he spoke.

“What did you think when you first got here?” Grillby asked, genuinely curious. He was quite tipsy himself, having had multiple beers in the time span that Sans had been at his apartment.

“i thought that you were real hot.” Sans paused after he spoke, realizing that he’d accidentally made a pun. He chuckled at it before sobering up (not really), turning his attention back up to the fire elemental.

“Oh, really? Well, did I tell you that you just ‘fire me up’?” Grillby responded, intentionally throwing in a pun. It was the first time that night that he’d given into Sans’ flirting, realizing that he didn’t really mind it. Even though Sans was a bit wasted, it didn’t stop him from blushing. It also didn’t stop Grillby from pointing it out. “Aw, look, you’re blushing!” He exclaimed, moving in a bit closer to poke Sans’ cheekbone with his index finger.

“i am not!” Sans denied, causing his blush to deepen further. The color of his magic really suited him, especially since Grillby remembered Sans telling him that his favorite color was blue at some point.

“You sure are!”

“am not!”

“Are too!”

This went on for about five more minutes, the two monsters having absolutely no concept of time at that moment. Their faces were dangerously close to each other, wrong move and- they accidentally kissed. Sans was very shocked and almost pulled away at first, but Grillby seemed to already be enjoying it. He pulled Sans closer, causing the skeleton monster to scramble a bit and settle down in his lap. Sans melted (heh) into it, his short arms slinging around the back of Grillby’s neck in an attempt to pull the elemental closer.

Grillby had his hands rested on Sans’ hips, squeezing them ever so slightly. It wasn’t long before he opened up his mouth, letting his tongue trace along Sans’ bottom teeth, asking for an entrance. Sans summoned a blue tongue at this and opened his mouth up, granting Grillby the access he had been asking for. Their tongues entwined and Sans had to hold back from letting out a slightly embarrassing sound. Grillby quickly dominated Sans’ mouth, noting that Sans was a lot more submissive than he seemed at first glance. The small skeleton couldn’t help but let out a tiny moan at the taller male’s actions, his cheeks turning a bright blue in response to what he had just done. This encouraged Grillby further, his hand sliding up Sans’ shirt and tracing his fingers along his ribcage. This caused the skeleton to jerk a bit at the ministration, his back arching into his feather light touch. Grillby was warm, very warm. It felt so good though, the slight burn brought by his touch turning on the skeleton more.

He was about to ask Grillby for more when the other suddenly retreated, pulling away from the kiss and taking his hand out from under his shirt. “I- I can’t do this.”

“why not?”

“You’re drunk.”

“so? you are too.”

“Not as much as you are. I don’t want to take advantage of you and for you to regret it in the morning.” Grillby sighed after he spoke. Even in Sans’ clouded state of mind, he could see the logic in it. He could argue and say that he surely wasn’t going to regret it, but he couldn’t know that for sure. There was a possibility that he wasn’t even going to remember them making out the next morning, and going all the way wouldn’t change that.

“you know… i guess you’re right.” He admitted reluctantly, already wanting to kiss Grillby again. He had no idea what was coming over him, and why all of the sudden he had this very strong attraction to the fire elemental. 

He could scratch the idea of being straight now. There was no way that he wasn’t at least bi at this point. Sans climbed off of his lap, plopping himself down next to the other but still staying pretty close to his side.

“Do you want to crash here tonight? It’s getting a bit late, now.” Grillby offered with a tired smile, and Sans took the offer gratefully.

“that’d be great, thank ya.”

“I’ll go grab you a blanket and a pillow then.” Grillby responded and stood up, heading into what was most likely his bedroom. Sans pulled out his phone and opened it up to his messages. Typing out a quick message to Papyrus, he let him know that he’d be staying at Grillby’s for the night. It didn’t take long for him to reply, and it made Sans feel quite relieved that he was okay with it.

Wow, that sure was quite the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im finally done with guard camp bless. but next week, it's full band camp woo


	11. That doesn't look like you're getting up to me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans remembers everything and has a hangover.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for such a short filler chapter, but i've had band camp so it's been hard to write decent ones. i promise the next one will be better

Unlike Sans had originally thought, he did remember the whole thing with him and Grillby. Just thinking about it embarrassed him to no extent. It wasn’t that he regretted it, he just had no clue if the other male did. He was guessing that the reason he was so okay with it all was because he was tipsy, it made sense. 

It was the morning after Sans had the genius idea to drink at Grillby’s, and he was beginning to regret it. He had woken up in Grillby’s apartment and minutes later quickly teleported home after remembering what had happened. It hadn’t been a very intelligent idea to do so, though, as he ended up throwing up magic mixed in with alcohol almost the moment he arrived. He really needed to stop teleporting while he was hungover, it almost never ended well. It was a Friday morning, meaning that Papyrus wouldn’t be home until later into the day. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, Sans needed all the time he could get to compose himself enough to seem like nothing had happened. His younger brother hated it when he drank, only because once they arrived to the surface it began to happen more often than not.

Sans groaned in pain, rolling over to hide his face in his pillow. To his disdain, he noticed that they had run out of painkillers, so the small skeleton was on his own to deal with the pounding headache. He could take some time out of moping in his bedroom to actually get up and get some from the pharmacy or something, but that was just too much work. He decided to let it be, his only helper being the large bottle of water that he’d grabbed from the fridge after he had thrown up. Throwing up while hungover definitely wasn’t fun, at least for Sans it wasn’t. The only thing it did was somehow manage to make his headache worse, which was the exact opposite of what he was trying to do.

He heard his phone go off and he ignored it for about two minutes. It seemed like it’d take way too much effort to pick up his phone. Sans knew it’d be better if he at least looked at who it was from, though, only because he’d always reply if it was his brother no matter the circumstances. Once he picked it up and unlocked it, he saw that it was from second best at the moment. Alphys.

science nerd:

‘I might be able to get something today. Marcus seems to be in a very bad mood.’

Sans smiled at that. Perfect. They had just put their plan into action yesterday and they already had the possibility of getting evidence to hold against him. The idea of getting Marcus fired excited him. If Marcus got fired, there was a large possibility that he’d get his job back. The only person qualified to take his position there would be Alphys, and if she got promoted to it there was no way she just wouldn’t offer him his job back. The entire reason that they were doing this was so that he could have a chance in the first place.

sans:

‘sounds great. send me whatever you’re able to get’

Sans sent the text and let his phone fall back to his side. He knew that he couldn’t lay there all day, but at that moment it seemed like a pretty good alternative to doing anything else. He let out a quiet sigh, staring up at his ceiling like it was the most interesting thing he’d ever seen. 

Having nothing to do, his mind went back to the subject that he’d been trying to avoid. Was he really not straight? His entire life he just assumed that he was attracted to girls, considering that was what the norm was. When Sans took a moment to think about it, though, he realized that he had never thought a girl was attractive. Neither had he ever thought a guy was attractive, either. It was confusing him, how out of nowhere he suddenly thought Grillby was hot (heh). Oh, well. He’d just deal with it like he dealt with the rest of his problems. Push it to the back of his mind and ignore it.

Apparently, Sans had fallen asleep at some point because before he knew it Papyrus’ loud voice had woken him up.

“SANS! HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN ASLEEP?” Papyrus asked, peeking his head into Sans’ room. If he had a nose, it probably would’ve scrunched up out of disdain. His room was ridiculously messy, and no matter what extent Papyrus would go to in an attempt to get his older brother to clean it, he never would. He was hoping that it’d get better once they arrived on the surface, but if anything, it had gotten worse.

“huh- what?” Sans was startled out of his sleep, still extremely out of it and barely awake. He opened one eye up reluctantly, knowing that the light that he’d be greeted with would hurt his head quite a bit. Luckily for him the headache he had earlier seemed to have eased up with the nap, so it didn’t hurt as bad as he had expected. “probably for a while.” Sans must have slept for quite a bit, considering that his brother was already home.

“GOODNESS! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH YOU?” Papyrus asked while opening the door completely. He stood up straight and crossed his arms over his chest, although he wasn’t actually upset. He just didn’t want his brother to sleep all day, which wouldn’t be good for him.

“let me go back to sleep?” Sans responded, a hopeful tone seeping into his voice. He knew that Papyrus didn’t want him to, but he felt so exhausted. Then again, when did he not feel that tired?

“NO! COME DOWNSTAIRS, BROTHER. I’VE MADE DINNER!” By the excited tone in his voice, Sans had an idea of what he had made that night. Papyrus only got that excited over making food when he made spaghetti, which to this day was still his favorite meal to cook and consume.

“fine, fine. i’m comin’.” Sans told his younger brother, although he made no move to get up. He needed a moment to gather the motivation to get downstairs. His bed was much comfier than anything else that he could imagine at that moment, so he was savoring all of the little time he had left in it as much as possible.

“THAT DOESN’T LOOK LIKE YOU’RE GETTING UP TO ME.” Papyrus responded. If he had eyebrows, one of them would probably be raised at Sans’ lazy actions. Sans didn’t respond, causing Papyrus to huff and walk over to his older brother’s messy mattress. Getting Sans out from the covers, he picked him up and began to head downstairs. 

“hey! i wasn’t done yet.” Sans complained, although he was still too tired to fight back against Papyrus. Even if he was wide awake, he’d never win. His brother was much stronger than he was, and it wasn’t very hard to tell.

“WELL, NOW YOU ARE! THERE IS FOOD ON THE TABLE.” He chided lightly in response, using one hand to pull out a chair and then placed Sans in the chair. “THERE!”

Sans looked down in front of him, and he was greeted by a plate of spaghetti. He knew it. Although, now it wasn’t a bad thing to eat his brother’s food. His spaghetti was actually quite enjoyable now. “heh, thanks bro. ‘m such a lazybones, aren’t i?” He asked, chuckling at his bad pun.

“YOU REALLY ARE!” His younger brother agreed with him wholeheartedly, sitting down and picking up a fork. The two of them began to eat, and every now and then Sans would make a pun about food which caused Papyrus to roll his eyes every single time. Surprisingly, Sans finished his food, reminding him that he hadn’t ate all day. Well, at least he had been able to eat dinner. 

“thanks for the food, paps.” Sans thanked, standing up and grabbing his plate. He decided that he’d at least put his plate in the kitchen, although he definitely wouldn’t be washing it. That was way too much work for him. Heading over to the couch, he flopped down onto it and realized that he had left his phone in his room. Letting out a loud groan of annoyance, he glanced over at Papyrus with a pleading look written on his facial features. “pap? could ya do me a huge favor and get me my phone?”

“WHY CAN’T YOU DO THAT YOURSELF?”

“because i just got comfy! i don’t wanna get up again.”

Papyrus paused for a minute before walking out of the kitchen. He had most likely been getting ready to wash the dishes. “FINE! WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITHOUT SUCH A COOL BROTHER TO TAKE CARE OF YOU?” He asked, heading over to the staircase and beginning to ascend it without pause.

“i dunno, beats me.” Sans responded, smiling as he knew that he wouldn’t have to get up again. His brother was so great, he did so much for him. Even if it was just as little as grabbing his phone from his bedroom, it still meant a lot to the small skeleton. Papyrus was only gone for a few moments before he reappeared from Sans’ bedroom, holding his phone in one hand.

“I’VE FOUND IT! I’M SURPRISED THAT I DID, CONSIDERING HOW MESSY YOUR ROOM WAS.” Papyrus teased, as both of them knew that it had just been lying on his bed.

“it was literally on my bed, not too hard to find.” Sans teased back, a joking smile forming on his mouth. He took the phone from Papyrus once it was handed to him and quickly unlocked it to see that he had two messages from Alphys and one from Grillby. “thanks, bro.”

“ANYTIME, BROTHER!” His younger brother said before heading back into the kitchen, most likely to wash dishes.

He opened up the text from Grillby first, curious as to what it said.

grillbz:

‘Hey, are you doing okay? Haven’t heard from you all day.’

Sans contemplated whether he should reply or not. He knew that he should, Grillby seemed to be worried. At the same time, he didn’t exactly want to. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to talk to Grillby, he just had a feeling that he’d make it awkward. He decided that he’d reply before he went to bed, so that he wouldn’t have to see his response until the following morning.

Next, he took a look at what Alphys sent him. This brought a big smile to his face. Attached to the text message was a video, most likely of his boss. Opening it up, he pressed play. It was taken at a pretty awkward angle, most likely because Alphys was trying to make sure that she didn’t get caught recording. The last thing she needed was for Marcus to find out what was going on. In the video, Marcus was yelling at one of his employees. No surprise there. However, nearing the end of the video he threatened to hit the person he was yelling at, which definitely wasn’t acceptable. It’d be great evidence to hold against him.

science nerd:

‘I was able to get one video today, hopefully I’ll be able to get some more next week.’

sans:

‘it’s perfect, good start’

Sans was very excited for the events to come, the possibility of Marcus getting fired or at least demoted was a very nice thought. On top of that, getting his job was an even better one. He missed working as a scientist, it had been his favorite job that he’d ever had (even better than selling h’dogs down in hotland) and was one of the only things that he had put noticeable effort into.

Other than his awful hangover from earlier and the inevitable awkwardness between him and Grillby, today had been a pretty decent day.


	12. I think they ship it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope ya enjoy it ;)

“BROTHER, YOU KNOW THAT YOU CAN ALWAYS TALK TO ME, RIGHT?”

“of course i do, why’d you ask?”

“YOU’VE SEEMED QUITE OFF LATELY… I’M WORRIED.”

Well, shit. After what seemed like years (actually only a year) of hiding the way that Sans truly felt about himself and the world around him, Papyrus had finally decided to speak up. As much as Sans hated lying to his brother, he couldn’t let him know how much he was actually suffering. It was better for Papyrus’ wellbeing. “i’m really fine, paps. ya know, ‘m just super lazy. can’t help but just do absolutely nothing all of the time.”

Papyrus seemed a bit skeptical, seeing past Sans’ laid back and casual exterior. He’d recently noticed that his older brother’s lethargy most likely didn’t have to do with laziness. From the way that his eyelights would flicker hopelessly every now and then and to the way that he dragged himself around. Even getting up from the couch seemed to be a chore for the skeleton. If he was much older, struggling to get around wouldn’t seem out of the ordinary. However, Sans was twenty two years old. That definitely wasn’t the age where monster’s bodies normally began to fall apart. He wasn’t going to rudely confront him about it, though. Sans was the type of monster to hold all of his feelings inside, and when told that he wasn’t doing well, he’d break.

“You seem to be even lazier than usual, it isn’t right.” Papyrus’ tone lowered, becoming much more calm and collected than it had been moments before. At this, Sans seemed to freeze momentarily, as if trying to think of a response that wouldn’t expose him entirely.

“heh, what can i say? i feel a lot more relaxed up on the surface then down in the underground. so, i’ve got more chances to be lazy.” Sans finally responded, looking up from his now empty plate of food to see Papyrus’ reaction. They’d been eating dinner before the topic had sprung up, the moment that Sans finished his meal Papyrus had almost automatically spoke up. He needed to ask his brother about it, make sure that he was okay. By the way the conversation was going though, and the way that Sans looked ridiculously nervous, it didn’t seem like the small skeleton was at his best.

“I guess that makes sense. But, seriously, if you ever need me, I’m always here.” Papyrus offered with a grin, although the both of them already knew very well that the tall monster would always be there to attend to Sans when he needed something. Sans smiled weakly in response, leaning back in his seat to feign comfort. In reality, he was the opposite of comfortable. The seat may have been nice, but the conversation sure wasn’t. He really needed to get out of there, and fast.

“thanks, bro. you’re the best.” Sans responded, genuinely thankful for all of the things that his brother does for him. He began to stand up, his slipper clad feet touching the ground finally with little sound.

“I AM! I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AFTER ALL!” Papyrus exclaimed, returning to his original happy and cheerful demeanor. He didn’t entirely believe Sans’ excuse, but decided that he’d let it slide for once. Sans would probably panic if Papyrus forced the truth out of him, and he didn’t want the monster to suffer like that.

Sans chuckled at Papyrus’ grand statement, glancing down at his empty plate on the table like it was his worst enemy. Knowing that he’d get scolded if he walked away and just left it there, he decided to use gravity magic to float it gently over and into the sink. The small skeleton was way too lazy to walk into the kitchen itself, it was really far. At least, in Sans’ opinion it was. As Sans deactivated his magic for the time being, his eyes returned to normal. It took a moment for Papyrus to realize what had just happened, but he gaped at Sans once he got it. “SANS! YOU COULD’VE BROKEN THE PLATE!” He whined. 

Papyrus was right. There had been multiple times where Sans’ magic had failed him and caused him to drop several objects, one of them being a beaker filled with a dangerous chemical while Sans stilled worked at the lab. He had never cleaned something up so quickly after the shock set it, he couldn’t afford for Marcus or any other employee to see that mess. “i could’ve, but hey, i didn’t this time.”

“BUT WHAT IF-“

“no what if’s, ya know that i don’t like those.” Sans pointed a finger at him playfully like a parent would to their child while yelling at them for something they did wrong. For some reason, Sans had disliked what if statements for as long as he could remember. Especially if they were used after the fact. If it hadn’t happened, why would you want to be so hung up on it? That’s a lot of wasted energy and time that could be used for napping and doing absolutely nothing.

“FINE.” Papyrus gave in, pretending to pout. Moments later, his façade broke and he laughed a bit, standing up and grabbing his own plate. Heading into the kitchen, he placed it in the sink gently and got ready to wash the dishes for the night.

Sans didn’t bother moving, he just stood in place for about five minutes while thinking of what to do. He wanted to get out of the house, but he had no idea where to go. Grillby’s was always an option, but the two of them hadn’t properly had a conversation in over a week. The only time Sans sent him a text was a day after Grillby asked him if he was doing alright, and the way that he had responded didn’t leave room for much conversation. All that he had written was ‘i’m ok’, as he wasn’t entirely sure what to say.

Worst comes to worst, Grillby would kick Sans out of the establishment. However, Sans knew that’d never happen. Grillby was very kind and soft spoken, it’d take quite a bit to make him angry enough to kick a customer outside. He decided to go for it, the house suddenly seeming way too stuffy and cramped for him. Normally he’d savor any time he could get inside the messy home, but he’d barely left it in the past week and needed to leave. “’m gonna head to grillby’s, see ya.” Sans called and waited for Papyrus’ response.

“OKAY, BROTHER! TRY NOT TO DRINK TOO MUCH.” Sans frowned a bit at that. His drinking had become so much of a problem that Papyrus had given up on trying to stop him completely. The small skeleton had started getting drunk about three to four times a week now, and when he wasn’t drinking, he was most likely hungover.

“i won’t, bro.” Sans meant what he said. He had actually woken up pretty hung over that morning, and didn’t want his brother to be disappointed in him twice in one day.

Too lazy to walk to the bar, Sans teleported himself to the front door of it. Winter was really beginning to set in now, and it was pretty obvious that it would most likely start snowing in a couple days. Pushing open the door, he shoved his hands into his pockets as he walked inside. He greeted some of the regulars as usual, a big grin on his face as he did so. Before seating himself, he made eye contact with Grillby. The fire elemental looked quite shocked to see the skeleton in his establishment, most likely because they hadn’t spoken in about a week.

“Sans? How are you?” Grillby asked, focusing mainly on cleaning off the glass in his hand.

“’m alright, just needed to get out of the house. you?” Sans said politely, knowing that neither of them did well in awkward silence. He tapped his fingertips lightly on the bar countertop, nervous energy getting the best of him.

“I’m alright. It’s been quite busy today, though.” Grillby responded, setting down the glass he had just cleaned and picking up another dirty one. He glanced up at Sans every now and then, trying to gauge his emotions by the way his face looked. He seemed to be very tired, although by the way that he was tapping his fingertips on the table showed that he might have been a bit nervous as well. For what reason, Grillby didn’t know.

“i noticed that, there are quite a bit of people here,” Sans mused as he looked around for a moment. There were a lot of people there that day, most of the booths and tables had been filled. “hey, i- i just wanted to apologize.”

“Apologize for what?” Grillby turned his attention completely to Sans now, curious as to why the small monster was apologizing.

“ya know, for freaking out about what happened last week. ‘m normally not the type of monster to do that.” Sans explained, glancing down at his lap for a moment. He knew that he was beginning to blush, he could feel the magic begin to pool at his cheekbones already. The skeleton had accepted that he most likely wasn’t straight. Straight men normally didn’t make out with their friend who is also a male. Straight men normally didn’t find their male friends attractive. He wasn’t sure if he was actually gay, but he knew for sure that he wasn’t straight.

“It’s okay, really. I just assumed that you regretted it, that’s all.” Grillby said calmly, which caused Sans to look up at the fire elemental quickly.

“i- wait- i didn’t-“ Sans stopped himself and took a deep breath. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to get out the words he was attempting to if he didn’t take a moment to compose himself. “…i didn’t regret it.” He finally blurted, albeit a little quietly. It was enough for Grillby to hear apparently, as his flames seemed to burn just the slightest bit brighter once Sans finished speaking. Almost as if he were blushing.

“You didn’t?” He asked, seemingly dumbfounded. Never in a million years would Grillby assume that Sans wasn’t straight. He never talked about girls, but he never talked about boys either. So, he just assumed what any other normal person would. That the skeleton was straight.

“no, heh. that must make me not straight, huh?” Sans replied as calmly as he could, although the way his voice wavered slightly gave it away. He had stopped tapping his fingers on the counter and now began to play with the zipper on his worn hoodie. He was nervous, very nervous.

“I guess not,” He said quickly, almost as if he was trying to process the entire situation. Grillby felt strangely happy at this confession, although he wasn’t really sure why. He didn’t exactly have a reason to be happy about it, all that Sans had told him was that he didn’t regret them kissing and that he wasn’t straight. He didn’t have feelings for the small skeleton, did he?

“could ya hook me up with a bottle of ketchup?” Sans suddenly asked, wanting to change the subject as quickly as possible. He wasn’t good at sappy stuff, even to his brother he didn’t really say overly sweet things often. Finding the right words to say wasn’t his forte, and he’d most likely end up blurting out a pun if the conversation had continued.

Grillby nodded and headed into the back room like he always did, coming back out moments later with a bottle of ketchup in hand. “Why do you like ketchup so much?” He asked curiously while handing it over to Sans.

Sans popped the cap off and shrugged, taking a sip before responding. “i’ve honestly got no clue. it just tastes good to me.” He really had no clue why he liked it so much, there were probably many other food items he could eat that tasted much better. Sans just preferred ketchup, that was all.

“I guess that makes sense.”

“eh, it is a pretty weird thing to eat without anything else.” Sans admitted, chuckling quietly afterwards. He had been asked by many why he drank ketchup, and they all seemed pretty shocked that he’d just drink it rather than putting it on fries or something. Humans seemed the most dumbfounded, probably because monsters had seen much weirder.

They held a pretty casual conversation for a while, and both of them were pretty surprised at that. They avoided the topic from earlier like the plague, as if it’d kill them if they ever so slightly mentioned it. That was, until Grillby couldn’t handle it anymore.

“Are you sure you didn’t regret it?”

Sans seemed to be a bit confused at first, not having a clue as to what he was talking about. Then it hit him, and his entire face turned blue. He opened his mouth to respond before he had an idea. Snapping it shut, he gestured for Grillby to come closer. 

Grillby listened and leaned over the counter, placing his hands on it for support. With a sudden surge of confidence, Sans grabbed the collar of his shirt gently and pulled him in for a kiss. Grillby was extremely shocked at first, his eyes widening and his body completely freezing. It wasn’t long until he kissed back though, finally coming back to his senses.

Once Sans pulled away, his opened his eyes and smirked subtly. Still holding onto his collar, he finally spoke. “does it seem like i regret it?” He asked, before realizing what he had just done. Letting go of the shirt, his face turned blue once more as he began to panic slightly. “oh, stars, ‘m sorry. that was really sudden, i-“

“Don’t worry about it. That was… nice.” Grillby admitted, his flames now burning noticeably brighter than usual. 

They were snapped out of their moment by various catcalls and cheers coming from around the bar. They both turned their attention to the customers surrounding them, and the blush on Sans’ face darkened further, if that was even possible.

“Well, I think they ship it.” Grillby joked, using a term that he had seen online multiple times. He seemed to be much calmer than Sans was, who was currently a blushing and stuttering mess.

“y-yeah, i think they do.”

Either his friendship with Grillby would be absolutely ruined from these interactions they had shared or turned into something much more, who knew?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also im sorry for grammar errors, i didn't proofread it after i finished writing it just because i was lazy oops


End file.
